Vladimir Putin AGREES to Volodymyr Zelensky meeting, says Trump administration
The development was confirmed by Donald Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said "encouraging conversations" between Trump and Putin had led to the maligned Russian leader agreeing to "the next phase of the peace process". Such a meeting could be followed by trilateral talks with Trump "if necessary".
Ukraine has not yet repsonded, but Zelensky has previously said he is willing to meet with Putin.
Further details, such as where and when a meetin could take place, are not yet clear.
Trump had said earlier today that he had been working on arranging a meeting. "They haven't been exactly best friends," he said in an interview with Fox News. "It only matters if we get things done… I hope that President Zelensky will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility also."
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The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow casts doubt over peace talks after bombing US factory in new wave of strikes
Russia 's foreign minister has cast fresh doubt on peace talks, questioning 'the legitimacy' of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to sign any future agreements after targetting a US factory in a large bombardment on Ukraine. Sergei Lavrov affirmed to reporters that Putin had 'repeatedly said he is ready to meet, including with Mr. Zelensky,' caveating that they wanted to resolve 'the issue of legitimacy' on 'the Ukrainian side' when it comes to signing agreements. Moscow has repeatedly questioned Zelensky legitimacy as his term in office was due to expire in May 2024. It comes as Zelensky cast doubt over Moscow's intentions for peace after launching 574 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine, hitting a US electronics manufacturer in west Ukraine, which he said was 'very telling.' 'The Russians carried out this strike as if nothing is changing at all. As if there are no efforts from the world to stop this war.' Zelensky has said that Kyiv wants an understanding of security guarantees in the next week, before bilateral and trilateral leaders meetings can take place, as he warned that if Russia was not willing to sit down for a meeting, he wanted a 'strong reaction' from the United States. Belarus says it is looking at how to arm its missile systems with nuclear warheads Belarus is assessing how best to ramp up domestic production of missiles, including exploring how to equip its Polonez rocket launcher systems with nuclear warheads, a senior Belarusian security official said on Thursday. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, said this week it would deepen bilateral ties with Iran, and has also cooperated with China on weapons development. It does not possess its own nuclear weapons but hosts Russian tactical ones which remain under Moscow's control. President Alexander Lukashenko, who has led Belarus since 1994, told officials at a meeting on weapons manufacturing on Thursday that Minsk needs to modernise and develop its missile production. "The dynamics of military threats and the significant increase in military spending by our western neighbours force us to constantly pay close attention to the issue of the defence capabilities of Belarus, Russia, and our Union," Lukashenko was quoted as saying by state media. Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 13:45 Lithuania declares no-fly zone by Belarus border in response to drone incursions Lithuania has established a no-fly zone near its border with Belarus until October 1 in response to drones entering from there, NATO member Lithuania's defence ministry said on Thursday. "This was done with regard to the security situation and the threats to society, including risks to civil aviation due to airspace violations by unpiloted aircraft," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The no-fly zone will give Lithuania's armed forces more time to react to airspace violations, the spokesperson said without specifying the exact location or size of the restricted area along the 679-kilometer (422 miles) border. The decision comes after Polish officials reported on Wednesday that a Russian drone had crashed in a field in eastern Poland, an incident the country's defence minister described as a provocation. In July, an unmanned aircraft built from plywood and foam flew into Lithuania from Belarus and crashed, causing alarm before authorities determined it was not dangerous. Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 13:30 Watch: Russian foreign minister warns West over excluding Moscow from security discussions Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 13:15 Inside the Ukrainian factory building drones and cruise missiles to strike Russia Inside the Ukrainian firm building drones to strike Russia With limited military assistance from Western allies, Ukraine has fast become a global center for defense innovation Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 13:00 Russia's Lavrov says some issues will have to be worked out before Putin and Zelenskiy can meet Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, but there are some issues that need to be resolved before such a meeting could happen, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said. Putin has questioned the legitimacy of Zelensky due to the postponement of elections in Ukraine due to the war. Lavrov said the legitimacy issue would have to be resolved before Moscow could sign any document with Kyiv. Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 12:50 Italy arrests Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating Nord Stream pipeline attacks Italian police have arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, Germany's prosecutor general said on Thursday, adding that he would be brought before a German judge after being transferred. Seen by both Russia and the West as an act of sabotage, no one has ever taken responsibility for explosions that severely damaged pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Europe in September 2022, which marked a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and ramped up an energy supply crisis on the continent. The suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022, a statement from the prosecutor's office said. He and his accomplices had set off from Rostock on Germany's north-eastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack, it said, adding that the vessel had been rented from a German company with the help of forged identity documents via middlemen. Authorities acted on a European arrest warrant for the suspect, who faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of buildings. Carabinieri officers arrested him overnight in the province of Rimini on Italy's Adriatic coast, the German prosecutors' statement said. Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 12:40 Lavrov accuses Europe of trying to undermine progress made in Alaska Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused European leaders of trying to undermine progress which he said had been made at last week's U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska on a possible peace deal in Ukraine. Speaking of the Coalition of the Willing, he said Kyiv's European allies were trying to shift the focus away from resolving what Russia calls the "root causes" of the war. "I hope such European adventurism fails," he said. He also reiterated Russian concerns about the way the European discussion on security guarantees for Ukraine was being conducted without Moscow's input. Any ideas which departed from those set out by Russia in talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022 were hopeless, he said. Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 12:28 'Putin wants us to panic': How Russia has amped up its aerial strikes on Ukraine As Russia launches yet another large aerial strike on Ukraine, here we look at the strategy behind the country's approach to these attacks - and why they aren't increasing the volume of missiles and drones every single day. 'Putin wants us to panic': How Russia has amped up its aerial strikes on Ukraine The Russian army launched a fresh drone assault on Kyiv overnight, following a pattern of attacks in the past two months Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 12:20 Recap watch: Russia's drone strikes spark huge fire at energy facility in Ukraine Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 12:00 Where could Putin and Zelensky meet for Ukraine war summit? Bryony Gooch21 August 2025 11:38
Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Putin dusts off his delaying tactics playbook as Kremlin stalls Zelensky peace-talk hopes... while building up frontline troops and pounding Ukraine 'as if nothing were changing at all'
Vladimir Putin is dusting off his stalling and delaying tactics playbook as peace talks with Ukraine falter and Russia continues to build up troops on the frontline and pound Ukrainian targets. In the space of just a few days, Putin has questioned Volodymyr Zelensky's legitimacy and made, then changed, major demands over Ukraine's security guarantees, all while his forces continue to pound targets and rally on Ukraine's Southern Front. According to Zelensky, Russian forces are building up troops along the southern front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Moscow claims as its own. 'Zaporizhzhia: the enemy is reinforcing,' Zelensky said, adding that: 'We can see that they continue transferring part of their troops from the Kursk direction to Zaporizhzhia.' And overnight, Russia launched its biggest barrage of missiles and drones in weeks, killing one and leaving many wounded. The latest cross-border fire follows Trump's flurry of diplomacy this month aimed at ending the war. The US president met Putin in Alaska, before bringing Zelensky and European leaders to Washington for separate talks. Russia has played down the prospect of a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky any time soon, and has said it wants to be included in discussions on future security guarantees for Ukraine. Putin repeatedly said he is ready to meet Zelensky, but there are some issues that need to be resolved before such a meeting could happen, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today. Putin has questioned the legitimacy of Zelensky due to the postponement of elections in Ukraine due to the war. Lavrov said the legitimacy issue would have to be resolved before Moscow could sign any document with Kyiv. Just yesterday, Russia also took issue with security guarantees for Ukraine, claiming that any attempt to solve issues of security without Moscow were 'a road to nowhere.' Lavrov said at a press conference: 'We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work. 'I'm 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.' To top it off, Lavrov later upped the ante and claimed China also needed a say in the matter, once again moving the goalposts and forcing the West to recalculate its negotiating strategy and tactics. He said Ukraine's security guarantees 'should be provided on an equal basis with the participation of countries such as China, the United States, the UK and France'. He claimed the terms are based on those Moscow tried to force Kyiv into signing in Istanbul in April 2022, two months after their invasion. Those terms effectively meant none of the guarantors would be allowed to defend Ukraine from Russia unless they all agreed, including China and Russia. Zelensky said today in response that he did not want China playing a role in guaranteeing Ukraine's security following Russia's invasion, citing Beijing's support for Moscow. 'First, China did not help us stop this war from the start. Second, China assisted Russia by opening its drone market... We do not need guarantors who do not help Ukraine and did not help Ukraine at the time when we really needed it,' Zelensky said in comments released to reporters including AFP on Thursday. The stalling comes after Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles against Ukraine overnight in the biggest barrage since mid-July, killing one person and wounding many others. Zelensky said several missiles were aimed at a US-owned business in western Ukraine 'producing everyday items like coffee machines'. Fifteen people were injured in that strike. Ukrainian officials said that the strikes showed Russia was not serious about a peace deal despite intensive diplomatic efforts led by US President Donald Trump. 'The Russians carried out this attack as if nothing has changed at all, as if there are no global efforts to stop this war,' Zelensky said. 'This requires a response. There is still no signal from Moscow that they truly intend to engage in substantive negotiations and end this war,' he said. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 574 drones and 40 missiles. Air defence units downed 546 drones and 31 missiles. 'One person was killed and two were wounded as a result of the combined UAV and cruise missile strike in Lviv,' said Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the military administration in the western city's region. 'Dozens of residential buildings were damaged,' he added. The 15 people were wounded in the city of Mukachevo, near the border with Hungary and Slovakia, the city council said. 'Five patients are being treated in the hospital, and one more was transferred to the regional hospital,' the council posted. Western Ukraine is less frequently targeted by Russian forces, which have captured swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine in an invasion which began in 2022. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said there was 'no military logic or necessity' to the strikes, saying they were 'just terror against people'. Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry said it destroyed '49 Ukrainian aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles' across multiple regions. The ministry did not detail any casualties or damage. Putin's stalling appears to be just the latest instance of deploying a stalling tactic during talks about the future of Ukraine. Earlier this year, when Russia and Ukraine were set to meet in Turkey, Putin failed to confirm his attendance of the talks that were, at that point, the highest level discussion between the two nations. Instead, he sent a second-tier delegation to Istanbul to speak with Zelensky and his team on his behalf. The highest level official in attendance at the Istanbul talks was Vladimir Medinsky, one of Putin's aides, slowing down the negotiation process. Putin's meeting with Trump in Alaska last week appeared to highlight exactly why he and the Kremlin were keen to use stalling as a diplomatic tactic. The Russian despot said that the 'root causes' of the conflict needed to be addressed in order to achieve lasing peace. These so-called 'root causes' include Ukraine becoming a neutral territory, giving up land in the east, hugely reducing the size and capability of its military and abandoning its aim to join NATO. Analysts slammed Putin for the underhanded tactics seen this week and previously. Philippe Dickinson, a former UK diplomat who works with the Atlantic Council, described last week's Alaska summit as: 'The treading water summit.' He added: 'With little seemingly achieved, this was nobody's worst-case scenario. Putin got to share the stage with the president of the United States and proffer enough flattery and meaningless talk of respecting Ukrainian security to stave off further immediate sanctions and economic pressure.' Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, meanwhile said it was unlikely Putin would meet with Zelensky unless he all but gives up. 'Putin will not meet Zelenskyy under the current circumstances. He has repeatedly stated that such a meeting would only be possible if there were well-prepared grounds, which in practice means Zelenskyy's acceptance of Russia's terms for ending the war', she said. Ukraine peace talks were in disarray on Wednesday after Russia demanded Moscow and Beijing get a veto on any security guarantees Dickinson said that the only way for the West to respond was with 'strength and pressure'. He said: 'Now is the time for the Europeans to press on Trump that Putin is the only obstacle to peace, and that Trump should finally apply his 'peace through strength' approach to this conflict: to dial up the collective military, diplomatic, and economic pressure on Russia, both directly and indirectly through the countries that continue to enable Putin's war machine. 'Absent that, Putin will continue to happily tread water in the bloody lake he has created'.
North Wales Chronicle
an hour ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Russia launches missile attack on Ukraine as Zelensky seeks security guarantees
The attack mostly targeted western regions of the country, the air force said, where much of the military aid provided by Ukraine's western allies is believed to be stored. The strikes killed at least one person and injured 15 others, according to officials. It was Russia's third largest aerial attack this year in terms of the number of drones fired and the eighth-largest in terms of missiles, according to official figures. Most such Russian attacks have hit civilian areas. The strikes occurred during a renewed US-led effort to reach a peace settlement after Russia's February 2022 invasion of its neighbour. US President Donald Trump discussed the war with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, and at the start of this week hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House. Russia has fired nearly 1,000 long-range drones and missiles at Ukraine since the White House talks. Ukraine and European leaders have accused Mr Putin of stalling in peace efforts, including Ukraine's proposal of a ceasefire and Mr Zelensky's offer to sit down with the Russian leader. The Kremlin has reacted coolly to those possibilities. Mr Zelensky condemned the overnight attack, saying it was carried out 'as if nothing were changing at all'. Moscow has shown no sign of pursuing meaningful negotiations to end the war, the Ukrainian leader said as he urged the international community to respond with stronger pressure on Moscow, including tougher sanctions and tariffs. Ukraine has kept up its own attacks with domestically produced long-range drones on infrastructure inside Russia that supports Moscow's war effort. It has hit oil refineries and Russian wholesale fuel prices have reached record highs in recent days. Almost all the overnight missiles were fired from inside Russia. They reached deep into western Ukraine, near the border with Hungary. Western parts of Ukraine are far from the battlefield's front line in the east and south of the country, where a grinding war of attrition has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. In the western city of Lviv, one person was killed and three were injured as the attack damaged 26 residential buildings, a nursery school and administrative buildings, regional head Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on Telegram. The Regional Prosecutor's Office said three Russian cruise missiles with cluster munitions struck the city. Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia had struck a 'major American electronics manufacturer' in western Ukraine. He provided no further details but Mr Zelensky said the company produces domestic appliances. On Wednesday, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine will hold intensive meetings to understand what kind of security guarantees its allies are willing to provide. The details are being hammered out by national security advisers and military officials. The plans will become clearer within 10 days, the Ukrainian leader said, and he then expects to be ready to hold direct talks with Mr Putin for the first time since the full-scale invasion. The talks could be conducted in a trilateral format alongside Mr Trump, Mr Zelenskyy said. A venue for the meeting is being discussed, and Switzerland, Austria and Turkey are possibilities, the Ukrainian president added. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that working on security arrangements in Ukraine without Moscow's involvement was not feasible, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. Mr Zelensky said that in his meeting in the Oval Office on Monday he sought to convince Mr Trump that the battlefield situation was not as bad for Ukraine as Mr Putin portrayed. He pointed to errors in the US map of the front line which he said showed Russia holding more territory than it actually does.
