Russian and US officials are holding talks in the Saudi city of Riyadh today as efforts to end the Ukraine war continue. Follow the latest here – and submit a question for defence analyst Michael Clarke below. Listen to The World podcast as you scroll.
Monday 24 March 2025 17:00, UK
Live reporting by Mark WyattandOllie Cooper
Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke returns for his weekly Q&A on the Ukraine war tomorrow afternoon – covering anything from the battlefield to the negotiating table.
He’ll tackle as many of your questions as he can – submit yours in the box above to join in.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again invited US vice president JD Vance to visit Ukraine during a recent phone call – but he is still waiting for a response.
In an interview with Time magazine, the Ukrainian president said he had suggested that Vance reconsider his decision not to visit Ukraine during the war.
“We’re still waiting for you,” Zelenskyy told Vance, but the US official did not reply.
During the interview, Zelenskyy also said he hoped Donald Trump would realise that Vladimir Putin was “weaker than he seems” and “cannot be trusted”.
He said that while he did not believe in apocalyptic scenarios, in one of his recent phone calls with Trump, he tried to paint a picture of a scenario in which the ceasefire proves vulnerable to endless Russian violations.
Describing such a scene, he said it all the towns and cities in Ukraine that sit along the frontline would become like a “thousand Berlins” during the Cold War.
He said they would be “dead zones” on the map of Europe.
What did Vance say to Zelenskyy in the Oval Office?
During tense talks in the Oval Office this month, Vance said Ukraine was relying on conscription.
In response to the conscription comment, Zelenskyy asked the Vance: “Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?”
The answer, as Zelenskyy knew, was no.
Ignoring the suggestion that he should visit, Vance countered: “I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, and I know that what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr President.”
Further to reports we have been bringing you through the day on strikes on Sumy, the region’s acting mayor has said the attack today targeted “children’s institutions and a hospital”.
In a post on Telegram, Artem Kobzar said emergency services were working at the scene to provide assistance to the injured.
He said the residential sector and infrastructure facilities of the city were damaged, including children’s institutions and a hospital.
During the war, Russia has maintained that it does not hit civilian targets and its strikes target critical infrastructure and military facilities in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of managing to influence high-level officials in the White House.
In an interview with Time magazine, Ukraine’s president said the Kremlin has successfully managed to convince members of the Trump administration to believe false narratives about the war.
“I believe Russia has managed to influence some people on the White House team through information,” he said.
“Their signal to the Americans was that the Ukrainians do not want to end the war, and something should be done to force them.”
Zelenskyy also referenced his Oval Office spat with Trump and JD Vance last month, saying he was “defending the dignity of Ukraine” during the shouting match.
“In that moment there was the sense of not being allies, or not taking the position of an ally,” he said. “In that conversation, I was defending the dignity of Ukraine.”
Watch: How Trump-Zelenskyy talks unravelled
On recent US diplomacy surrounding the war, it was put to Zelenskyy that Trump seems to have reserved all the carrots for Russia, while the Ukrainians get the stick.
“If the carrot is poisoned, then thank God,” Zelenskyy says. “Maybe that’s the sneakiness of this diplomacy.”
Russia must stop its attacks instead of “making hollow statements about peace”, Ukraine’s foreign minister has said this afternoon after the Kremlin’s strikes on Sumy.
In a statement on X, Andrii Sybiha said dozens had been injured after Russian bombing in the northern region.
He said any diplomacy with Moscow “must be backed up by firepower, sanctions and pressure”.
You can read his statement here…
Sumy is about 18.6 miles from the Russian border and is subject to regular drone and missile strikes by Russia.
Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine with the intent, among other things, of stealing its children, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports.
In its latest war update, the US-based thinktank states that when Russian troops rolled across the border into Ukraine, “the groundwork for the massive deportation of Ukraine’s children was already in place”.
Ukrainian human rights activists uncovered Kremlin documents dated February 2022, which laid out plans to remove Ukrainian children from orphanages in the occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions and bring them to Russia, the thinktank says.
“In the subsequent three years, Russia has embarked on a Kremlin-directed, deeply institutionalised project to abduct Ukrainian children and forcibly turn them into the next generation of Russians,” the ISW reports.
The thinktank says Ukraine has been able to verify Russia’s deportation of 19,456 children to date.
Meanwhile, Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab has placed the number of deported children closer to 35,000 as of 19 March.
The ISW adds: “The true number of deported children is near-impossible to verify, but the implication remains the same – Russia has stolen tens, potentially hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children with the explicit intent of eradicating their Ukrainian identities and turning them into Russians.”
We brought you reports earlier on a Russian missile strike in the northern Ukrainian Sumy region (see post at 2.21pm).
Regional head Volodymyr Artiukh said 28 people had been injured after the strike hit residential buildings and a school.
He said children were being evacuated at the time, and all were safe.
Now images are emerging of rescuers at the scene working to extinguish the fires.
The attack came ahead of ceasefire negotiations in Saudi Arabia in which Ukraine and Russia are expected to hold indirect US-mediated talks.
US and Ukrainian officials are due to hold another round of talks after discussions between Moscow and Washington end today in Riyadh, a senior Ukrainian government source has told Reuters.
A delegation from Kyiv already met with US officials yesterday to discuss the details of a potential ceasefire.
Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defence minister, said those talks were “constructive and meaningful”.
The relationship between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been complex over the years.
Relations between the two presidents extend as far back as 2019, the year the Ukrainian leader took office.
It has since weathered the start of the war in Ukraine, Trump’s re-election and a recent heated exchange in the Oval Office, in which Zelenskyy was accused of being “disrespectful” to his country’s most powerful ally.
Here we look back at the key moments that have helped shape the pair’s relationship and how it has changed over the years.
Vladimir Putin has spoken with his United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan today, the Kremlin says.
The Russian president thanked Sheikh Khalifa for mediation in prisoner exchanges with Ukraine. The UAE says around 3,000 prisoners of war have been swapped by Ukraine and Russia with its mediation.
The pair also discussed the ongoing Russian-US peace talks on Ukraine.
“Mohammed Al Nahyan expressed support for the efforts undertaken by Russia and the United States and, in particular, welcomed the consultations of expert groups of the two countries taking place today in Riyadh,” a Kremlin handout says.
A Russian missile strike has injured 28 people in the northern Ukrainian Sumy region, authorities said.
Regional head Volodymyr Artiukh said the strike hit residential buildings and a school, adding that children were being evacuated at the time, and all were safe.
Acting mayor Artem Kobzar said four children were among those injured following the strike but did not specify whether the four were in the school when the attack occurred.
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