The US will brief European leaders ahead of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin, Poland’s prime minister has announced. Trump and Putin are set to meet in Alaska on Friday. Follow the latest below.
Monday 11 August 2025 11:16, UK
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Michael Clarke, our military analyst, will be back this week to answer your Ukraine war questions.
It could be a massive week for the future of the conflict and peace in Europe, with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin planning to meet in Alaska on Friday.
Will Volodymyr Zelenskyy be there, too? That’s still uncertain – as are the terms of any potential deal between the US and Russia.
Use the form at the top of this page to get in touch with your question for Clarke before what could be a pivotal meeting. We’ll bring you the answers on Wednesday.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says the US has pledged to consult its European partners before this Friday’s meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
He also said that Ukraine must be part of any discussions on ending the war, warning that Moscow “must be aware that the West does not accept Russian demands that would involve Ukraine giving up territory”.
“I have many fears and a lot of hope regarding [the] Trump–Putin meeting,” he added.
The foreign minister of the Czech Republic says Russia’s long-term goal in Ukraine is to transform the country into a satellite state and “kidnap” it back under Moscow’s control.
“Ukraine is not just about territory,” Jan Lipavsky says.
“It is a clash between two civilisations – the free, democratic West and an imperial regime bent on destruction and domination.
“Today, Ukraine is defending the very essence of Europe.”
In an op-ed for European Pravda, Lipavsky adds that “only integration into the European Union and NATO will ensure Ukraine’s security and prosperity in the future”.
Donetsk, Luhansk, Mariupol and Crimea will be Europe when the Ukrainian flag flies over them again, because Ukraine is Europe and is fighting in the clash of civilisations for the future of the Czechs, but also the French, Italians, Germans, Poles, and many other nations. Ukraine and Europe will prevail!
Jan Lipavsky to European Pravda
Here are images showing Ukrainian soldiers from an air-defence unit firing at Russian drones in the Dnipro region.
As we’ve mentioned, Ukraine’s air force says it detected 71 drones fired at the country from Russia overnight, with 59 brought down.
As EU foreign ministers prepare to meet this afternoon to discuss Ukraine, Spain has stressed the importance that Kyiv be included in all talks regarding its future.
It comes as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are due to meet face to face in Alaska on Friday to discuss the end of the war.
Ahead of today’s virtual meeting, Spain’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares said that “no one should decide anything about Ukraine’s territory without the Ukrainian government”.
Regarding the Putin-Trump meeting, Albares considered it “positive” for anyone to sit down with the leader of the aggressor country to “talk about peace, but true peace, not a definitive violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty or European security.”
“If a war of aggression pays off for Russia, the world will be more unstable; anyone could be tempted to grab a piece of their weaker neighbour,” he added.
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.
Three people were killed in Russia by Ukrainian attacks overnight, local authorities have reported.
It comes as Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 59 drones over the country overnight, according to the defence ministry. Seven drones were shot down en route to Moscow, its mayor said.
One person was killed and two others were hospitalised after an attack on an industrial zone in the Nizhny Novgorod region in western Russia, Gleb Nikitin, the governor of the region, said on Telegram.
Earlier, governor Dmitry Milyaev said at least two people died and two people were hospitalised in the Tula region as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack that also targeted Moscow and other regions.
Ukraine’s air force says Russia launched 71 drones at the country overnight.
It says air defence units managed to bring down 59 of those drones using anti-aircraft missiles, electronic warfare units and mobile fire groups.
It adds that 12 drones were recorded hitting six different locations in Ukraine.
There have so far been no reports of any casualties from Ukraine.
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
As usual, we’re starting this week with an overview of the key movements in the war recently, as well as looking ahead to what you need to know in the coming days.
A deadline passed…
Last week, Donald Trump’s deadline for Russia to show its willingness to end the war came and went.
On Friday (8 August), Russia was supposed to prove it had taken steps towards easing fighting, or the US was going to hit it with economic sanctions.
However, that was quickly overshadowed last week by the growing prospect – and then confirmation – of a Trump-Putin meeting.
So far, there’s been no mention from the White House of the return of the sanctions.
Alaska summit announced
Late on Friday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to reveal he and Vladimir Putin would be sitting down this Friday (15 August) in Alaska.
This set the weekend’s events in motion, as European leaders scrambled to make sure Ukraine was not sidelined from the meeting.
It’ll dominate this coming week as well, so watch out for what both sides, and their allies, are saying up until Friday.
Zelenskyy in or out of talks?
One key question is whether the Ukrainian president will be present at the Trump-Putin summit.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy repeated Kyiv’s line that Ukraine must be involved in any peace negotiations – something heard from European allies, including the UK, as well.
Watch him speak below:
Reports from the US suggested Trump was “considering” this.
But when speaking to Fox News, vice president JD Vance says he doesn’t think it would be productive to have Zelenskyy in Alaska.
Instead, he said the US was working on a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders directly.
Keep an eye out in the coming days for any movement on either Zelenskyy’s attendance in Alaska, or plans for him to meet Putin.
A Chevening holiday
In the UK, Vance was holidaying at the Kent grace and favour home of the foreign secretary, when a last-minute meeting of national security advisers was organised after the Alaska summit was announced.
Here, our US partner NBC News reports, Ukraine and European allies outlined a plan to Vance of what they wanted from the negotiations.
EU foreign ministers are meeting today, and we’ll likely see more from the UK, Ukraine and their allies throughout the week to make sure the Kremlin doesn’t control the agenda of Friday’s talks in Alaska.
Have Putin’s demands leaked?
While Ukraine and Europe were scrambling for a seat at the table, Putin was demanding huge swathes of Ukraine, according to reports.
Moscow wants Kyiv to hand over not just all the land it currently occupies – around 20% of the country – but also the last quarter of the Donetsk region still controlled by Ukraine, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In exchange for a ceasefire, the frontline would freeze in Zaporizhia and Kherson, of which Russia occupies 74%, and Luhansk, where Russia has taken 99%, officials briefed on the proposal told the US outlet.
These are terms that Ukraine and Europe have long rejected.
Russia wants to bypass ‘fortress belt’
Experts warn Russia’s favoured terms would let the Kremlin’s forces bypass the “fortress belt”.
Ukraine would be forced to abandon some of its best defensive fortifications – separating the Ukrainian-held and Russian-occupied parts of Donetsk – in return for nothing, military analysts say.
It would allow Russia to avoid years of bloody struggle to break through this “fortress belt”, advance 51 miles, and line up its troops on the edge of the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
With much more open terrain, these borders are difficult to defend – which would potentially allow the Kremlin to launch another invasion in the future.
That’s all for our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for now.
Today, Ukraine and its allies continued to reel from the announcement Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will be meeting in Alaska on Friday.
European allies, late last night, warned Kyiv could not be sidelined in peace talks.
It came as Trump was said to be “considering” inviting Zelenskyy to the summit.
But the US vice president, in an interview with Fox News, has said Washington was working on a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
Vance added that he didn’t think Zelenskyy attending Friday’s summit would be productive.
Overnight attacks continued, with at least six killed in Ukraine and one killed in Russia.
Meanwhile, the EU has said its foreign ministers are due to meet tomorrow.
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