{"id":161349,"date":"2025-08-20T14:25:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-moscow-warns-of-road-to-nowhere-in-security-talks-as-russia-accused-of-treacherous-attack-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:25:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:25:06","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-moscow-warns-of-road-to-nowhere-in-security-talks-as-russia-accused-of-treacherous-attack-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-moscow-warns-of-road-to-nowhere-in-security-talks-as-russia-accused-of-treacherous-attack-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: Moscow warns of 'road to nowhere' in security talks – as Russia accused of 'treacherous' attack – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Ukraine and allies continue to mull security guarantees in case Russia’s war can be ended, Moscow has warned against these discussions without them at the table. Follow the latest.
Wednesday 20 August 2025 15:21, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
At least three people have reportedly been killed in Russian strikes in the eastern region of Donetsk.
The city of Kostyantynivka was hit by eight Smerch missiles, according to local governor Vadym Filashkin.
He adds four people were also injured.
“I emphasise once again: it is dangerous to stay in the Donetsk region! The Russians are deliberately striking in such a way as to kill and maim as many civilians as possible,” he said.
In our latest Q&A session on the war in Ukraine, security and defence analyst Michael Clarke<\/a> was asked whether we’re “back to square one”, with Russia asking for land and Ukraine refusing.
“It’s a very good point and a really good question,” said Clarke.
“That’s where we’re getting to.”
He said Russia’s demands in peace talks – such as asking for the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine – are “designed to be rejected”.
“The object is to get America out of the war,” Clarke said. 
“They want to create a situation in which the whole process fails, but Zelenskyy and Ukraine take the blame as far as Trump is concerned.
“And then Trump turns around and says: ‘at least I tried’.”
Watch the full Q&A below…<\/b>
Russia has launched counter-sanctions against the UK.
We reported in the post just below this one that the British government had added eight new designations to its sanctions list.
Now Moscow has retaliated in kind, with 21 British and Western nationals targeted.
Such tit-for-tat moves are not uncommon.
The new list includes a former MP, NGO directors, multiple journalists, a Canadian citizen, an Irish citizen and more.
The UK has added eight new designations under its Russia sanctions regime, a government update shows. 
The new sanctions seem to be against a mixture of individuals and companies.
The following entites were listed on the government’s website as added to the “Consolidated List” and subject to an asset freeze:
The new sanctions target crypto networks used by Russia to circumvent existing sanctions.
In a statement, the British foreign office says: “With sanctions continuing to bite, Russia has turned to the Kyrgyz financial sector to channel money through opaque financial networks, including through the use of cryptocurrencies. 
“These networks have created a convoluted scheme to evade sanctions imposed by the UK and its partners.
2Today\u2019s action closes in on the Kyrgyzstan-based Capital Bank, and its director Kantemir Chalbayev, which Russia uses to pay for military goods,”.
The EU Commission cabinet has been meeting today to brief members on the last two days of diplomacy over Ukraine.
European leaders – along with NATO boss Mark Rutte and EU boss Ursula von der Leyen – met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
In a statement today, Raffaele Fitto, the commission’s executive vice-president, said members discussed the latest developments in Ukraine in light of the Washington meeting, “which could represent an important step on the path toward a just and lasting peace”.
“The European Union must continue to act consistently and unitedly along this path, strengthening constructive dialogue with the United States and support for Ukraine,” he added.
Here’s the footage from Odesa, in southern Ukraine, after an overnight Russian drone attack.
The strike sparked a major fire at a fuel and energy infrastructure facility, authorities said.
Reacting to the attack this morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strike on energy facilities was “treacherous”.
Turkey supports efforts to establish a permanent peace in Ukraine with the participation of all parties, Tayyip Erdogan told Vladimir Putin in a phone call today, the Turkish presidency said.
Erdogan also told Putin he was closely following developments related to the process, and that Turkey had strived for a just peace since the beginning of the war, it said. 
Moscow’s readout of the call said that Putin expressed Russia’s appreciation of Turkey’s efforts to facilitate talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul.
Russia’s top diplomat says Moscow is well aware of “clumsy” attempts from the European Union to change Donald Trump’s position on Ukraine.
Sergei Lavrov also said that Russia was in favour of reliable security guarantees for Ukraine, but hoped the US understands that discussing security issues without Russia is a “road to nowhere”.
“I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it’s a road to nowhere.” 
Lavrov said Moscow was ready to discuss the political aspects of a settlement with Ukraine and could raise the level of delegations in negotiations.
But he repeated Moscow’s insistence that any meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian leaders should be the culmination of such negotiations, and would need to be carefully prepared. 
Our weekly Ukraine Q&A is starting now. Kamali Melbourne <\/a>and Michael Clarke<\/a> are ready to take your questions.
Lots of you have been in touch, and we will aim to get through as many of your questions as we can.
Use the form above if you still want to submit one.
You can watch along in the page below.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has welcomed his Austrian counterpart to Odesa for a visit this morning.
It comes after an overnight Russian drone attack caused a fire at a fuel infrastructure facility and damaged civilian homes there.
Andrii Sybiha said he was pleased to welcome Beate Meinl-Reisinger to the region, thanking her “personal commitment” to relations between the two countries.
As we’ve mentioned, the Austrian capital of Vienna has been touted as another potential meeting spot for talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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While Ukraine and allies continue to mull security guarantees in case Russia’s war can be ended, Moscow has warned against these discussions without them at the table. Follow the latest.Wednesday 20 August 2025 15:21, UKPlease use Chrome browser for a more accessible video playerAt least three people have reportedly been killed in Russian strikes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161350,"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":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161349","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=161349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}