Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian strikes overnight expose Vladimir Putin’s “true attitude towards peace”. Watch Sky News live below as Zelenskyy speaks from Norway.
Thursday 20 March 2025 14:04, UK
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Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store kicks off the news conference in Oslo, and tells Volodymyr Zelenskyy “we share your struggle”.
He says Norway shares Ukraine’s goal of being a “free, independent and sovereign state”.
“I know that no one wants peace for than you and the Ukrainian people,” he tells Zelenskyy.
“Your right to self defence has had our full support from day one”.
He adds Norway supports Ukraine’s push to get a ceasefire and a “just and lasting peace”.
We’re now hearing from Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who’s speaking with Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Oslo.
Earlier, Zelenskyy addressed EU leaders on his discussion with Donald Trump – a call he described yesterday as “positive”.
We’ll share updates here – you can also watch along yourself in the live stream above or on YouTube below.
Military plans are being drawn up in case a deal to stop the fighting in Ukraine is reached, according to the UK’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Speaking to Sky News, he said the planning by his so-called “coalition of the willing” – thought to include around 30 nations – had started today.
He said: “Those plans are focusing on keeping the skies safe, the seas safe, the borders safe and secure in Ukraine.
“We’re working at pace because we don’t know if there will be a deal – I certainly hope there will be.”
He added it’s important if there is a deal, “that we’re able to react straight away”.
“That’s why we’re doing this work today,” he said.
Follow the latest on Starmer’s talks and defence events today in our Politics Hub.
An update from the European Union summit being held in Brussels today now.
All EU leaders – with one exception – have backed a statement reaffirming the bloc’s “unwavering support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity”.
The exception is the man below – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
It’s not surprising news, as he’s often a thorn in the EU’s side who disagrees with his fellow European leaders.
He’s sympathetic to Putin and last year met with him to discuss a potential peace deal in Ukraine – long before the recent round of talks about ceasefires kickstarted by Trump’s return to the White House.
Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, has been speaking today.
He has confirmed he held a call with Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz yesterday, and added he speaks to Waltz “regularly” by phone.
“I would say that this communication is very useful for both sides,” Ushakov said.
On yesterday’s call, he added the pair “discussed the issue of holding a meeting of expert groups of the two countries, initially mainly to work out the prospects for the possible implementation of the well-known initiative concerning the safety of navigation in the Black Sea”.
Ushakov added the Black Sea talks would be conducted by US and Russian “experts” appointed by Putin and Trump.
The talks will be held on Monday 24 March in Riyadh, he added.
Ushakov also confirmed the Russian representatives for the talks.
Grigory Karasin, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, and Sergei Beseda, adviser to the director of the Federal Security Service, will attend.
“These are truly experienced negotiators, well versed in international issues,” Ushakov added.
“We hope that the consultations on Monday will be productive.”
Our security and defence analyst Michael Clarke is answering your questions on the war in Ukraine right now in a live Q&A.
You can also watch it live on YouTube.
The White House said yesterday it has “moved beyond” the long-heralded minerals deal with Ukraine.
That came after Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy each spoke positively about their hour-long call.
Our US correspondent Mark Stone did some digging on what this all means for the minerals deal and got some inside information.
A US source who’s just got back from Ukraine told him the minerals deal has not “gone away” – instead it’s being “built on” and is now a deal of “broader economic cooperation”.
Ukraine no longer thinks it is being “jumped into something”, the source added.
James Matthews, another of our US correspondents, said it works for Ukraine to have the US economically invested – but this still falls short of the security guarantees they’d been after.
He also explained why it may all come down to the “bottom line” for Trump.
For more insight and analysis on Trump’s call – and what it really means behind the scenes – tune in to our latest episode of Trump 100 with Stone, Matthews and Martha Kelner.
If you’ve got a question you’d like James, Martha and Mark to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.
Don’t forget, you can watch all episodes on their YouTube channel.
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Kyiv and Moscow have been accusing each other of disrupting peace efforts since Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin’s calls with Donald Trump this week.
We’ve heard from the Ukrainian president this morning, who said Russia exposes its “true attitude towards peace” with its attacks.
Now, Russia’s foreign ministry has accused Kyiv of attempting to disrupt peace efforts after an attack on an oil depot in the southern region of Krasnodar.
Authorities said the Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at the oil depot – which is a rail terminal for Russian oil supplies to a pipeline linking Kazakhstan to the Black Sea.
“It is absolutely clear that we are talking about another provocation specially prepared by the Kyiv regime and aimed at disrupting peace initiatives,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
But as we saw in our last post, Western analysts say these arguments are straight out of the Putin playbook to create confusion around the ceasefire and falsely blame Ukraine.
As we’ve been reporting, Ukraine and Russia are once again engaged in a blame game today after strikes by both sides last night.
The Institute for the Study of War thinktank says Vladimir Putin is deliberately “adding confusion”, though.
Analysts at the US-based thinktank say the Russian president is exploiting uncertainty around the timing and details of the limited ceasefire agreed with the US in a bid to falsely blame Ukraine – before both countries have implemented the agreement.
The ISW says Moscow’s claims that it adhered to the agreement while also accusing Ukraine of a violation are inaccurate as no official implementation has been agreed.
“Putin’s attempt to confuse and manipulate the temporary strikes ceasefire and blame Ukraine for violations even before the agreement has come into effect is an indicator of how Putin will likely exploit any future agreements,” the ISW added.
For context: Ukraine and Russia have exchanged strikes again this morning, with Zelenskyy saying Moscow’s attacks expose Putin’s “true attitude to peace”.
It comes the day after both sides accused each other of violating the agreement with the US not to target energy infrastructure.
We’ve just received an update on the drone attack on Russia’s southwestern Saratov region overnight.
Authorities say 10 people have been injured in the Ukrainian strike on a military airfield near the city of Engels.
A state of emergency has been declared in the Engels district of the region (see 8.11am post) after what governor Roman Busargin described as the “largest-ever attack” it had faced by drones.
Moscow’s defence ministry said a total of 54 drones were downed over the region.
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