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Sir Keir Starmer will meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz in London on Monday
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The Kremlin has praised US president Donald Trump’s new national security strategy, saying that it “corresponds in many ways to our vision”.
The comments come ahead of key talks between Sir Keir Starmer, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, France’s Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in London on Monday.
Mr Trump’s new strategy warned that Europe faces “civilisational erasure”, and said that Washington wanted to reestablish strategic stability with Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said last night that he had had a “substantive phone call” with US officials after they finished three days of talks with Ukrainian negotiators in Florida.
In a post to social media platform X, Mr Zelensky said that he had had a call with president Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
On Sunday, Mr Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy said that a deal to end the Ukraine war was “really close” and now depends on resolving just two main outstanding issues – the future of the Donbas region and the Zaporzhzhia nuclear power plant.
Ukraine faces a “pivotal” moment as Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to visit London for talks on peace proposals, a senior UK minister has said.
The Ukrainian president will meet Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street on Monday along with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Their meeting comes amid continued talks between Ukrainian and US officials on a Washington-backed plan to end the war.
On Sunday, Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Ukraine’s security and self-determination would be “at the heart” of the leaders’ discussions.
He told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “The principle behind the talks will be for Ukraine to be able to decide its own future.
“This is a really pivotal moment now. Everybody wants the war to come to an end, but they want it to come to an end in a way that gives Ukraine that freedom of choice in the future.
“So, that means not just an end to the war but also security guarantees for Ukraine in the future, and not a completely toothless organisation which is unable to decide its future.”
The UK has consistently pushed for any peace deal to include security guarantees for Ukraine, both from the US and in the form of the British and French-led “coalition of the willing”.
Russian missile, drone and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least three people in Ukraine, after US and Ukrainian officials wrapped up a third day of talks aimed at ending the war.
A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
Two people were killed and seven others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to the regional police.
Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to the Dutch prime minister ahead of his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday.
The Prime Minister held a call with Dick Schoof on Sunday morning, in which he briefed his Dutch counterpart on the meeting with Mr Zelensky and French and German leaders.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the pair “agreed the need for sustained international support for Ukraine’s defence” and “reiterated that Ukraine’s security is vital for Europe’s security”.
They both also committed to “always stand with Ukraine”, including through the “coalition of the willing” led by the UK and France.
The Kremlin welcomed a move by US President Donald Trump’s administration to revise its national security strategy and stop calling Russia a “direct threat,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
Mr Peskov told the state-run TASS news agency the updated document dropped language describing Russia as a direct threat and instead urged cooperation with Moscow on strategic stability issues. “We considered this a positive step,” he said.
The strategy, signed by Trump, also warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure”, that it was a “core” US interest to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and that Washington wanted to reestablish strategic stability with Russia.
“The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision,” Mr Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin when asked about the new US strategy.
After months on the sidelines of US-led peace talks, Europe is trying to rise to the challenge of guaranteeing Ukraine’s post-war future in the event of a ceasefire.
Britain and France are leading the push for a so-called reassurance force in Ukraine to retrain the army and uphold a peace deal if it emerges.
Thousands of allied troops could be sent to cities across Ukraine to help the army recover its strength and stand as an independent deterrent to Russian aggression – if both sides can agree to terms.
The Independent’s James C. Reynolds has more below:
The prime minister held a call with Dick Schoof on Sunday morning, in which he briefed his Dutch counterpart on the meeting with Mr Zelensky and French and German leaders.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the pair “agreed the need for sustained international support for Ukraine’s defence” and “reiterated that Ukraine’s security is vital for Europe’s security”.
They both also committed to “always stand with Ukraine”, including through the “coalition of the willing” led by the UK and France.
Russian missile and drone attacks overnight into Sunday killed at least one person in Ukraine.
A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages.
Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
The latest round of attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday evening he had a “substantive phone call” with American officials engaged in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida.
He said he had been given an update over the phone by US and Ukrainian officials at the talks.
Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov has told Russian media that the United States will have to “make serious, I would say, radical changes to their papers” on Ukraine.
His comments come as US and Ukrainian officials have finished three days of talks about plans for post-war Ukraine. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff spent four hours with president Putin this week.
Mr Ushakov did not clarify what changes Moscow wanted Washington to make.
Ukraine’s president Zelensky said on Saturday that he had had a long and “substantive” phone call with Mr Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The Kremlin has said it expect Mr Kushner to be doing the main work on drafting a possible peace deal.
Russian forces launched an overnight combined air strike on infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, causing power and water outages, its mayor Vitalii Maletskyi said on Sunday.
Located on the Dnipro River, Kremenchuk is a major industrial hub and home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries. The city has been repeatedly hit by Russian missiles, including a 2022 strike on a crowded shopping mall that killed at least 21 people.
Maletskyi said in a social media post that details of consequences of the strike would be released later on Sunday after damage assessment is completed. City services were working to restore electricity, water and heating in districts where supplies were disrupted, he added. Russia has intensified long-range strikes on Ukraine’s power, heating and water infrastructure ahead of winter and seeking to sap public morale and disrupt industry after previous cold seasons in the nearly four-year war saw nationwide blackouts and emergency rationing.
A photo posted by the mayor showed a large blaze engulfing what looked like industrial buildings at night.
“We will restore everything,” he wrote.
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