{"id":160625,"date":"2025-08-14T09:03:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T09:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-starmer-welcomes-zelenskyy-to-downing-street-on-eve-of-crucial-trump-putin-meeting-in-alaska-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T09:03:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T09:03:26","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-starmer-welcomes-zelenskyy-to-downing-street-on-eve-of-crucial-trump-putin-meeting-in-alaska-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-starmer-welcomes-zelenskyy-to-downing-street-on-eve-of-crucial-trump-putin-meeting-in-alaska-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: Starmer welcomes Zelenskyy to Downing Street on eve of crucial Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer is hosting Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Downing Street. It comes after Donald Trump threatened Vladimir Putin with “severe consequences” if he doesn’t agree to a ceasefire. Follow live below.
Thursday 14 August 2025 10:01, UK
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Sir Keir Starmer are now meeting behind closed doors in Downing Street. 
The Ukrainian president was greeted with warm embrace and a serious handshake. 
It’s not clear what the two leaders will discuss in their meeting, but it’s thought to include Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
Watch the moment Zelenskyy arrived below… 
Our political correspondent Mhari Aurora<\/a> watched as the Ukrainian president walked into Downing Street alongside Sir Keir Starmer and says he received a “very warm greeting”. 
“We know the two leaders have a good relationship and we know Zelenskyy is incredibly grateful when it comes to the UK’s support for Ukraine,” she says. 
“It was a warm embrace but nonetheless they had very serious and stoic expressions on their faces because they understand just how high the stakes are in the next 48 hours. 
“Clearly, Ukraine as we know it is at a crossroads, perhaps depending on how serious we can take tomorrow’s summit. Zelenskyy knows that, and Starmer knows that too.” 
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived at Downing Street and is being greeted by Sir Keir Starmer.
The pair hugged and shook hands while ignoring questions from reporters, before heading inside. 
A red carpet had been rolled out for the Ukrainian president’s arrival. 
Downing Street has provided little detail about what the pair will discuss in their talks, but the meeting comes just a day before Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine.
By Dominic Waghorn<\/a>, international affairs editor<\/b>
Ukraine would much rather this meeting weren\u2019t happening. 
Trump had seemed to have lost patience with Putin and was about to hit Russia with more severe sanctions until he was distracted by the Russian leader’s suggestion they meet. 
Ukrainians say the Alaska summit rewards Putin by putting him back on the world stage.
But the meeting is happening and they have to be realistic. 
Most of all they want a ceasefire, before any negotiations can happen.
Then they want the promise of security guarantees. That is because they know that Putin may well come back for more even if peace is reached.
They need to be able to defend themselves should that happen. 
And they want the promise of reparations to rebuild their country, devastated by Putin’s wanton, unprovoked act of aggression.  
There are billions of Russian roubles and assets frozen across the West. They want them released and sent their way. 
What they fear is Trump being hoodwinked by Putin with the lure of profit from US-Russian relations being restored, regardless of Ukraine’s fate.  
That would allow Russia to regain its strength, rearm and prepare for another round of fighting in a few years time.
Trump and his golf-buddy-turned-negotiator Stephen Witkoff appear to believe Putin might be satisfied with keeping some of the land he has taken by force.  
Putin says he wants much more than that.  
He wants Ukraine to cease to exist as a country separate from Russia. 
Any agreement short of that is only likely to be temporary.
WhatsApp has vowed to keep trying to make its services available in Russia after Moscow blocked people from using the messaging app. 
In a statement, the company, which is owned by Meta Platforms, said its services allowed people to communicate securely – something it claimed Russia was trying to prevent. 
“WhatsApp is private, end-to-end encrypted, and defies government attempts to violate people’s right to secure communication, which is why Russia is trying to block it from over 100 million Russian people,” it said. 
“We will keep doing all we can to make end-to-end encrypted communication available to people everywhere, including in Russia.” 
Russia has started restricting some Telegram and WhatsApp calls, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of failing to share information with law enforcement in fraud and terrorism cases.
A number of Ukrainian missile factories have been struck by Russian forces, Moscow’s defence ministry has said. 
It claimed weapons design bureaus and rocket fuel production facilities had also been hit by missiles and drones in the last month. 
Several Western missile defence systems that had been deployed to defend the factories have been destroyed, it added. 
“An attempt by the Kyiv regime, together with its Western partners, to organise the production of missiles to carry out attacks deep into the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the ministry said on Telegram. 
By Martha Kelner<\/a>, US correspondent<\/b>
As with anything Donald Trump does, he already has a picture in his mind.
The image of Trump shaking hands with the ultimate strongman leader, Vladimir Putin, on US soil calls to his vanity and love of an attention-grabbing moment.
There is also pride at stake. Trump campaigned saying he would end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day in office so there is an element of him wanting to follow through on that promise to voters, even though it’s taken him 200 plus days in office and all he\u2019s got so far is this meeting, without apparently any concessions on Putin\u2019s end. 
In Trump\u2019s mind and in that of many of his supporters, he is the master negotiator, the chief dealmaker, and he wants to bolster that reputation.
He is keen to further the notion that he negotiates in a different, more straightforward way than his predecessors and that it is paying dividends. 
So far despite sanctions on Russia, despite warnings and deadlines, the situation in Ukraine is only getting worse. 
He’s hoping that this meeting, simply the act of sitting down with Putin can change the tide.
 The Russian president may have different ideas. 
Europe is bracing for the outcome of Donald Trump’s face-to-face discussions with Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
Trump has threatened Russia with “severe consequences” if a ceasefire is rejected by its leader.
But concerns have been raised over Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s exclusion from the meeting.
Here, our US correspondent James Matthews<\/a> <\/b>takes a look at the summit…
The meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is going to be more of a “listening session”, a security expert has said.
Speaking to Sky’s Wilfred Frost, assistant professor of Arctic security at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Troy J Bouffard, says the meeting between Trump and Putin comes at a time when things are “a bit difficult”.
“It is hard to get past that for a lot of people and see the merit of the meeting and what it could accomplish,” he says.
When it comes to what we are expecting, he adds: “This is going to be a little bit more of a listening session.
“There are strong drivers for Trump and Putin to want this meeting.
“For Trump, it’s reasonable to say he wants to be leading a ceasefire and ending the Ukraine war.
“That hasn’t materialised yet so maybe this is an opportunity. 
“For Putin, it’s reasonable to say he is concerned about his relationship with Trump.
“When Trump took office it seemed like a friendly decent relationship between them but in the last few months Trump has voiced concern and does not seem as friendly with Putin.
“I’m certain this has Putin concerned and I am certain he will also want to voice his concern and find a way to improve his relationship and most notably get out of those sanctions.”
Fallen debris from Ukrainian drones have caused a fire at an oil refinery in Russia’s Volgograd, the governor has said.
In a statement on Telegram, Andrey Bocharov said: “Firefighters quickly began extinguishing the fire. According to preliminary data, there were no casualties.”
Russia’s defence ministry said air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed 44 Ukrainian drones overnight, including nine over Volgograd region.<\/p>\n

Sky News cannot independently verify this report.
The Volgograd refinery, which is owned by Russian oil giant Lukoil, has been targeted multiple times throughout the war. 
Be the first to get Breaking News<\/span>
Install the Sky News app for free<\/p>\n

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Keir Starmer is hosting Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Downing Street. It comes after Donald Trump threatened Vladimir Putin with “severe consequences” if he doesn’t agree to a ceasefire. Follow live below.Thursday 14 August 2025 10:01, UKVolodymyr Zelenskyy and Sir Keir Starmer are now meeting behind closed doors in Downing Street. The Ukrainian president was greeted with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}