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Trump and Putin are meeting in Alaska this morning to hopefully discuss peace and a ceasefire deal for Ukraine. Ukraine is not present at the meeting and was not invited.
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NZ Herald
29 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Christopher Luxon skips Ukraine call due to bad time zone
Luxon often speaks of his ability to survive on little sleep. In 2023, in an interview with More FM, Luxon said he he can sleep as little as 3.5 hours each night. He said he typically goes to bed between 11pm and 1am. 'I don't need a lot of sleep, I think I can function quite well. It's just sometimes there's a lot to do,' he said. In Thames, also on the campaign trail, he told Stuff, he gets up at 4.30am every morning. 'I get up at 4.30 every morning. I go seven days a week,' he said. Luxon said that in the past few weeks he had spoken directly to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. Luxon said he 'normally' goes to the meetings 'whenever possible'. 'Our message is pretty clear. Russia could stop this today if it wished, by a ceasefire immediately.' Labour leader and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said it 'would have been good if he could have attended', but he accepted Luxon had 'a lot to juggle'. 'I don't want to politic over something like that, so he can speak for himself on that one.' The call came after the summit in Alaska held between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. No peace agreements came out of that meeting, but the pair said progress had been made. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a score of European leaders, including Sir Keir and Macron, are expected in Washington DC in the coming hours for their own meeting with Trump. Trump posted on social media earlier that Zelenskyy could 'end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight'. He said there would be 'no getting back Obama given Crimea' and 'NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE'. Luxon said on Monday Ukraine 'needs to be in those conversations'. 'There is no way a just and lasting peace is going to be achieved without Ukraine at the bargaining table.'
NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
On board the final Interislander Aratere ferry sailing
NZ Herald Morning News Update | Trump and Putin meet in Alaska, Darts in Auckland Trump and Putin are meeting in Alaska this morning to hopefully discuss peace and a ceasefire deal for Ukraine. Ukraine is not present at the meeting and was not invited.
NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Europe to urge Trump not to cave in to Putin's peace demands
But the Trump administration said a discussion about the future of the mineral-rich region was needed and insisted 'both sides' will need to make concessions. On Sunday, Macron said the delegation's will was to 'present a united front between Europeans and Ukrainians', warning Trump: 'There is only one state that proposes a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia'. He added: 'If we are weak with Moscow, we are preparing for tomorrow's conflicts'. European leaders have not explicitly called for all of Donetsk to remain Ukrainian, instead saying it was up to Zelenskyy to decide what to agree to on territory. Zelenskyy pushed back on suggestions that he should be made to give up the entirety of the Donbas region, including land that Ukraine still holds. However, he opened the door to negotiations with Putin directly, saying any territorial changes should be discussed in a three-way meeting with the US. 'We need real negotiations, which means they can start where the frontline is now,' Zelenskyy said. 'The contact line is the best line for talking and the Europeans support this.' The Ukrainian President noted that the Russians were 'still unsuccessful' in Donetsk, where Ukraine holds 30% of the land, and had failed to take the area in the 12 years that Putin had tried to seize control. The request for face-to-face talks with Putin, which Moscow has consistently rejected, appears to be part of a wider European strategy to show Russia as the obstacle to peace. In a joint press conference in Brussels on Sunday, Zelenskyy and Von der Leyen said Russia must stop attacking Ukraine before proper negotiations can progress, whether that is called a ceasefire or not. From left: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, President of Ukraine, Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK, and Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland, emerge from St Mary's Palace for a press conference as part of the Coalition of the Willing meeting in Kiev. Photo / Getty Images The message represented an attempt to counter Trump's public declaration that all sides should end the focus on a temporary ceasefire and move straight to establishing a permanent peace deal. European leaders are wary of this position because it would allow Putin's forces to seize more Ukrainian land while talks were ongoing. However, senior figures in the Trump administration reinforced the President's desire for talks over territory on Sunday. Steve Witkoff, the US peace envoy who joined Trump and Putin for talks in Alaska, told CNN: 'There is an important discussion to be had with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there'. Marco Rubio, who was also in Anchorage, told CBS News: 'To reach the end of this conflict, both sides are going to have to make concessions. That's just a fact.' The US Secretary of State also backed away from previous US threats to sanction Putin if he failed to agree to a ceasefire, suggesting such a move would not keep him at the negotiating table. European leaders praised the Trump administration after the President promised security guarantees to a Western-backed peacekeeping force in Ukraine once the fighting has ended. Sir Keir and Macron are leading a group of 30 nations dubbed the 'Coalition of the Willing' offering to help protect Ukrainian freedom if a peace deal is struck. Under the plans, British military trainers and engineers would be sent into Ukraine alongside contributions from other nations after a ceasefire to rebuild the Ukrainian armed forces. European planes, including Royal Air Force fighter jets, would also police the skies to deter any invasion. Leaders have argued for months that the US would have to provide some form of security 'backstop' to ensure that, in reality, Russia would be deterred from attacking again. Some went public over the weekend thanking Trump for supposedly offering 'Nato Article 5-like' guarantees in a call briefing them on the Putin summit. Article 5 is a clause that agrees an attack on one Nato member is considered an attack on all. Downing Street wants the White House to clarify what security guarantees it is offering, while Macron said he would ask the US 'to what extent' it is ready to contribute. However, Keir did not issue personal comments on Sunday, reflecting Downing Street's strategy of trying to influence Trump behind closed doors rather than via megaphone diplomacy. Senior figures in Downing Street have expressed regret over what they consider to have been their failure to help Zelenskyy prepare for February's ill-fated meeting with Trump in Washington. Zelenskyy arrived at the White House hoping to announce Ukraine had reached a minerals deal with the US. But his Oval Office meeting with Trump descended into a shouting match after JD Vance, the vice-president, demanded that he show more gratitude after years of American support. The Ukrainian President was eventually told to leave the White House and told by Trump to 'come back when you're ready for peace'.
