Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in the US for talks with Donald Trump – who adopted a different tone on the Ukrainian leader after previously making false claims. It comes amid reports of Vladimir Putin’s efforts to “manipulate” Trump. Watch Sky News below for the latest.
Friday 28 February 2025 15:01, UK
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Ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, the dynamics of Moscow and Beijing’s relationship has been the focus of an increased scrutiny.
The nature of any conclusion to the war is considered by many commentators to have ramifications for China’s geopolitical ambitions – but the degree of the country’s continued support for Russia is also believed to be of major significance.
Against this backdrop, comments from Chinese president Xi Jinping today indicate the bond between the two nations is not at any immediate risk of weakening.
“China and Russia are friendly neighbours linked by a shared border and are true friends, who have passed a multitude of challenges,” the China Central Television quoted him as saying at a meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu.
The Chinese leader said he had already spoken with Vladimir Putin twice so far this year.
“We have drafted at the highest level a plan for the development of relations between China and Russia and have discussed in detail a number of important global and regional issues,” he added.
As talks continue between world leaders over how to secure peace in Ukraine, fighting continues to rage on.
Here, we run through the battlefield situation with territory maps, showing how much ground is currently held by Russian and Ukrainian forces.
The first map on this slider shows a wide view of the conflict, and from left to right you can see closer views of the fronts in Kharkiv, Donetsk and two views of the Russian region of Kursk.
A little more detail on those Russian statements about talks with US officials in Turkey yesterday (See 10.53 post).
The six hours of discussions between senior diplomats in Istanbul followed a Trump-Putin phone call on 12 February and a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia four days earlier.
Russia’s foreign ministry said today it had suggested restoring direct air links with the US – and while it did not say how the US side had responded, shares in Russian airline Aeroflot were up 3.8% after the news.
Many Western countries halted air links with Russia in 2022 due to sanctions aimed at punishing it for the war in Ukraine, and restoring flights to and from the US would be the most tangible economic result so far from a growing rapprochement between presidents Putin and Trump.
In Istanbul, “the sides discussed ways to overcome numerous ‘irritants’ inherited from the previous US administration,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
It said steps were agreed to ensure unimpeded financing of each side’s embassies and to enable diplomats to work normally, after years of tit-for-tat expulsions and disputes.
Russia also raised the issue of getting back six embassy properties in the US that were confiscated between 2016 and 2018.
“The need for practical results aimed at creating conditions for improving bilateral relations in the interests of the peoples of our countries was particularly emphasised,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.
“In concrete terms, the American side was asked to consider the possibility of restoring direct air traffic.”
Russia has received approval from the US for its new ambassador to the United States, according to Reuters.
Alexander Darchiev will leave for Washington DC soon, the news agency added.
He has most recently been head of the Russian foreign ministry’s North American department.
Moscow has had no ambassador in Washington since last October when the previous envoy Anatoly Antonov left his post.
The acting president of Romania has suggested the country could increase defence spending in the next year or two.
Ilie Bolojan, the country’s interim leader, said today that its defence spending target for 2025 is slightly higher than last year.
Military expenditure could reach 3% of GDP in one or two years, he said.
But asked about contributing to a peacekeeping force in Ukraine after any ceasefire deal, he said it was premature to discuss sending Romanian troops.
By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
The Baltic states are “very unhappy” after the UK failed to invite their leaders to join a summit on Ukraine this weekend, a European diplomatic source has said.
The source, with knowledge of the situation, warned that Moscow would notice with interest that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been excluded.
“Russia and our publics will clearly assess this that we are sold out by the US, but also by UK and France,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sir Keir Starmer, fresh back from a friendly meeting with Donald Trump in Washington, is due to host the leaders of more than a dozen European countries for a summit in the UK on Sunday to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine and wider European security.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is holding talks with the American commander in chief at the White House on Friday, is also due to attend.
The diplomatic source confirmed Starmer would have a phone call with the leaders of the Baltic states – but signalled that this was a poor substitute for not participating in the summit, which will take place in person.
“We are truly very unhappy with a refusal to invite the Baltic leaders,” the source said.
The three Baltic countries – located on NATO’s eastern flank with Russia – are among the highest defence spenders in NATO as a percentage of GDP.
They are also, relative to their small size, among the biggest supporters of Ukraine – giving weapons and funding to help the Ukrainian armed forces fight off Russia’s invasion – and have been the strongest voices in Europe raising the alarm about the threat posed by Vladimir Putin for years.
The aims of Starmer’s summit
The source said France was helping to organise the summit with Downing Street.
It will be used to discuss support for Ukraine, including a plan to create an international “reassurance” force that could be deployed to the country to help secure a ceasefire if the US can negotiate a ceasefire deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
Wider European security will also be discussed after Trump made clear that European NATO allies need to take a much greater responsibility for their own security instead of relying on the powerful US military.
The source added the leaders of Norway, Finland, Sweden and Poland were among the invitees, noting that Helsinki and Warsaw have both publicly ruled out contributing troops to an international security force in Ukraine.
‘Shameful’ to ignore key partners who ‘have a plan’
The source said members of the Baltic states “have a plan… but not invited”.
“All three Balts are among the highest supporters for Ukraine in terms of percentage of GDP and capabilities provided,” the source said.
“All decisions directly impact our security. Like another pact to divide Europe or take us for granted. Shameful.”
The UK regards Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as key partners.
The three Baltic states are closely allied with Britain as members of the Joint Expeditionary Force, a grouping of like-minded European NATO member states.
Downing Street was approached with a request for comment.
Sky News security and defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke has been discussing the potential outcomes of Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington.
“I think Zelenskyy is trying to test the waters now, to try and get on personal terms again with President Trump,” he told Sky News presenter Samantha Washington.
“Remember, this goes back to President Trump’s first term in office when Zelenskyy was a very new president, in 2019, and Trump was on to him to dig some stuff on Hunter Biden’s relationships in Ukraine.
“And President Zelenskyy wouldn’t do anything. He wouldn’t do it. And Trump disliked him from then. And I think that’s affected the relationship since.
“What he wants to do is to try to find out how much the United States is prepared to back any ceasefire that may be imposed upon Ukraine itself. I don’t think President Trump knows himself what he wants to do on that. He’s making this up as he goes along.
“And although President Trump is talking about this being over pretty quickly, I don’t think any of the diplomatic professionals who know about peace talks or even ceasefire talks think this will be over quickly.”
Clarke said Zelenskyy’s earlier comments that Trump lives in a “disinformation bubble” were unwise.
“That was not a clever thing to say,” he said.
“It might be true, for the rest of us, but it antagonised Trump needlessly.
“But since then, he said, ‘look, we’ve got a deal’, the minerals deal.
“My view of it is that it’s pretty insubstantial, but it doesn’t matter.
“It’s something they can talk about and it appeals to President Trump’s sense that he sees Ukraine primarily as a business opportunity.”
Clarke said the US president tended to “muse out loud” about big strategic topics but could “get away with saying things”.
“In a way, if the world gets used to that, they can sort of live with this,” he said.
“It’s not what they want, but they could sort of live with it. And I think they’re getting used to it now. Zelenskyy has got to learn to read all of that.”
Ukraine has denied involvement in an alleged assassination attempt on a senior priest in Russia’s Orthodox Church.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled an attempt by Ukraine’s military intelligence service to kill Tikhon Shevkunov, who has been described in Russian media reports as Vladimir Putin’s personal “confessor”.
But a spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence denied Kyiv was behind such a plot and dismissed the accusations as “absurd” and “lies”.
“We are fighting according to the rules – the rules of war and international rules,” said Andriy Yusov of the Ukrainian defence ministry’s main directorate of intelligence.
Ukraine’s military says it struck a Russian oil refinery and a weapons warehouse overnight.
The general staff said on Telegram that the refinery, located in the Krasnodar region close to Crimea, is supplying fuel to the Russian military.
The weapons warehouse was located in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s military said it contained thermobaric weapons – also known as vacuum bombs or aerosol bombs – which create high temperature explosions.
It said three other “important facilities of the Russian invaders” were also hit.
Russia’s foreign ministry has just provided some details over what was discussed during yesterday’s meeting with US officials in Istanbul.
The meeting, which Russian state news said lasted for six hours, had been framed as a chance for the two countries to discuss the operation of their respective embassies in Moscow and Washington.
The Russian foreign ministry says talks were “substantive and businesslike” and both sides agreed to take steps to ensure the “uninterrupted financing and conditions for diplomatic work” for their respective embassies.
It also said the delegations had discussed issues related to what it said was the illegal confiscation of Russia’s diplomatic property in the US and that they had asked the Americans to consider restoring direct air links.
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