Ukraine and Russia end latest round of direct peace talks in Istanbul
The latest round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine has ended after just over an hour, according to Russian state media and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Speaking in Vilnius, Lithuania, Mr Zelensky said a new release of prisoners of war was being prepared.
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The second round of negotiations in just over two weeks in Istanbul came after a string of attacks over the weekend and expectations were low for any significant progress on ending the three-year-old war.
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Sky News
12 minutes ago
- Sky News
Got a Ukraine war question? Send it to Michael Clarke here
06:05:48 Send in your Ukraine war questions It's Wednesday, which means our security and defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke is back to answer your questions on the Ukraine war in his weekly Q&A. Hundreds of you have already sent in your questions after a very significant few days on the battlefield in the three-year conflict. Ukraine has pulled off three daring attacks - on two bridges and Russia's bomber fleet over the weekend and on the key Kerch Bridge linking Russia to Crimea yesterday - and the world is waiting to see how Vladimir Putin responds. Watch: Ukraine strikes Russian bombers Watch: Kerch Bridge explosion And there are reports Moscow is launching a summer offensive as peace talks make little sign of progress. Teams from Kyiv and Moscow met for a second round of direct talks in Istanbul on Monday, agreeing only to another prisoner swap and exchanging terms for a full ceasefire, which still appears a long way off. And all the while, the usually vocal Donald Trump has remained quiet. So what does it all mean? Michael is here at midday to help make sense of it. Submit your questions to join in - and you'll be able to watch the Q&A live on this page.
Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Abramovich billions may never reach Ukraine – and ‘Government knew it' from day one
The row centres on the interpretation of a 'deed of undertaking' between the Government and Abramovich in which he agreed for the money to be committed to charity 'for the purposes of helping victims of the war in Ukraine'. When putting Chelsea up for sale, Abramovich publicly stated that he wanted the proceeds to be used 'for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine' – including those from his native Russia, something successive governments have refused to countenance. An official involved in the negotiations in 2022, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Telegraph Sport: 'Day one, we were concerned. We went eyes open with the fact that this was a possibility. But there genuinely wasn't an alternative.' The official said the danger of Abramovich blocking the release of the Ukraine fund had taken a back seat to fears he 'would let Chelsea go to the wall' if a deal was not struck to sell the club before the end of that season, or that he would try to 'legally get the money back himself' if sanctions against him were lifted. 'The decision was to put it in a place where we knew he couldn't get at it, and then there was a principle that this charity would be formed and that it would spend the money wisely,' the official added. 'That it's dragged on to this point is just as much a testament to the fact that the Government hasn't invested financial pressure, resources or political capital in dealing with what was, from day one, very clearly going to be a problem.' Three-year delay 'incomprehensible' Indeed, Reeves and Lammy have taken until this week to threaten legal action, something Telegraph Sport has been told the previous Conservative government had ruled out. That is despite a report by a House of Lords committee in January last year finding it 'incomprehensible' the issue had not been resolved and urging ministers 'to use all available legal levers to solve this impasse rapidly, so that Ukraine can receive much-needed, promised, and long overdue relief'. The report was published by the European Affairs Committee, chaired by cross-bench peer Lord Ricketts, a former permanent secretary to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, British ambassador to France and national security adviser. He told Telegraph Sport it had taken too long for the Government to act upon the report's recommendations and acknowledged an acrimonious legal battle could delay things much further when it comes to accessing a fund likely to have accrued more than a hundred million pounds in interest. 'It's getting ridiculous that this delay should be dragging on and on,' Ricketts said. 'I'm not a lawyer and I can't explain exactly what the Government are going to do, but I think it's now really urgent to get this sorted. And I think 'incomprehensible' is still a pretty good word to describe why, three years later, we're still waiting for the money to go to the people who really need it in Ukraine.' Concerns over the delay had been raised even earlier, including by Mike Penrose, the former chief executive of Unicef UK, heading the independent foundation set up to administer the fund. He was joined two years ago by Oxfam, Save the Children, Kyiv-based charities and UK families hosting Ukrainian refugees in calling for then prime minister Rishi Sunak to urgently break the deadlock. That was after the European Union, like the Government, ruled the money could only be spent within Ukraine's borders, an edict the charities urged Sunak to ignore. Labour peer Lord Foulkes also wrote to then chancellor Jeremy Hunt in September 2023 over the 'unacceptable delay' in releasing the funds, adding in his letter: 'The only barrier, as far as I can tell, seems to be bureaucracy, and it strikes me as ridiculous that we should let a matter of paperwork confound these efforts, when our Ukrainian allies overcome incredible adversity on a daily basis.' Foulkes told Telegraph Sport: 'The trouble is we've been playing by the rules that the Russians never acknowledge, never play by, and we have been trying to get some agreement on it. 'That was always likely to fail – and certainly take a long time. I'm glad that, at last, they're now taking action and I think it's the right thing to do, and they should press ahead with it as quickly and as forcibly as possible.' Seizing of Russian assets 'politically explosive' Telegraph Sport has been told the previous government ruled out legal action after concluding there were too many downsides, including the risk investors could shun the UK. Various sources with knowledge of negotiations with lawyers for Abramovich have branded the ongoing row as a 'nightmare issue', describing the seizing of Russian assets as 'politically explosive'. Explaining the difference between freezing and seizing assets, a source said: 'Seizing assets is a whole new ball game. There's a sizeable chunk that is frozen in Britain that are Russian-state assets. There are huge numbers of countries and lots and lots of lawyers who would explain to you that if you even try taking it and just seizing it and say that money is now ours, you are facing intense pressure.' The source said that could include 'lobbying' from other countries which invest in the UK who might say: 'OK then, we're pulling out billions of billions from your economy now.' Bart De Wever, the Belgian prime minister, also warned in March that confiscating almost €200 billion (£168 billion) of frozen Russian assets would be 'an act of war' and would carry 'systemic risks to the entire financial world system'. Telegraph Sport has also been told the last government was split on whether to compromise on Abramovich's demands, with Andrew Mitchell said by one source to have discussed ways ministers could 'cut a deal' with the oligarch when he was at the Foreign Office. Explaining the power Abramovich currently held over the frozen Chelsea sale fund, a source said: 'He can't access the money. He can't spend the money, but he can stop the trust spending it and, at the moment, he's always hidden behind, 'No, the terms that I agreed to the sale are not quite the same as the terms that the British Government are now insisting on'.' Telegraph Sport has approached a representative for Abramovich for comment on the Government's legal threat against him. A book entitled Sanctioned is being released next week in which he is expected to be quoted about the sale of Chelsea and the sanctions imposed on him.
New Statesman
31 minutes ago
- New Statesman
Inside No 10's new dysfunction
Keir Starmer's Downing Street was dysfunctional from its earliest days. Labour, senior figures often say, had a plan to win but not a plan to govern. Blame for this was attributed to Sue Gray, who resigned as Starmer's chief of staff after just four months in office and whose tenure still 'casts a long shadow' in the words of one government source. No 10 has strived ever since to recover from this false start. As well as the appointment of Morgan McSweeney as Gray's replacement, two Blair-era figures joined last November: Jonathan Powell as national security adviser and Liz Lloyd as director of policy delivery and innovation. In his memoir A Journey, Tony Blair writes of the latter that she brought 'order and discipline' and 'had an excellent temperament too: lovely to work with, honest and, underneath all the English feminine charm, quite steely. Above all, capable.' Powell, who was No 10 chief of staff from 1997-2007 (making him the longest-serving Blair aide), is regarded as one of the government's most successful hires. He is credited with helping to broker the US-Ukraine détente and overseeing a wider foreign policy reset (with Britain striking trade deals with the US, Europe and India). But Lloyd, who served as Blair's deputy chief of staff from 2005-07, is proving a more divisive figure. Insiders speak of tensions between herself and Stuart Ingham, the head of the No 10 Policy Unit and Starmer's longest-serving aide, who joined as a senior parliamentary researcher in December 2016. Ingham, who has consciously eschewed a media profile, is described by those who know him well as a cerebral social democrat (his PhD dissected the debate between the liberal philosopher John Rawls and the Marxist intellectual GA Cohen). 'If there's one person in the country who can define what Starmerism is, it's him,' an ally told me. Cabinet ministers liken his relationship with Starmer to that between a father and a son (Ingham survived an attempt by Gray to remove him). Yet during Labour's fraught early months in government, grandees such as historian Anthony Seldon and former cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell complained that loyalty had come at the expense of experience. 'I do think there is a need for No 10 to have a lot more heavyweights in there – a lot more policy heavyweights,' said O'Donnell after Gray's resignation, recalling past Policy Unit heads such as David Miliband, Andrew Adonis and Geoff Mulgan. Such critiques helped prompt the appointment of Lloyd who is close to Pat McFadden, Starmer's chief Whitehall fixer ('what does Pat think?' the Prime Minister will often ask). But government sources speak of a difficult marriage between Lloyd – who is unashamedly Blairite in her outlook – and a broadly soft left Policy Unit (No 10 denied claims that Ingham, who now reports to Lloyd, threatened to resign over her arrival). Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Before her return to government, Lloyd held roles including group company secretary of Standard Chartered Bank and chief investment officer of British International Investment. Though some praise her aptitude and experience, others speak of a clash of worldviews. In one meeting on growth at the start of this year, Lloyd is said to have raised concerns over the government's abolition of non-dom tax status. 'People who operate with assumptions from 20 years ago are different to the people who were in the guts of this election campaign and who understand how we built our coalition,' a senior Labour source told me. Lloyd is also said to have expressed concerns over Bridget Phillipson's school reforms, which impose new requirements on Blair-era academies such as employing qualified teachers and following the national curriculum (a Phillipson source insisted that talk of divisions was 'nonsense'). The recent appointment of Oli de Botton, who co-founded a free school former Blair aide Peter Hyman, as Starmer's education adviser was viewed as a shift in emphasis. But intermittent speculation that the Education Secretary will be moved at the next cabinet reshuffle is downplayed. 'Keir really, really likes Bridget,' remarked one insider. A recurrent critique of Starmer's government, intensified by the recent U-turn over winter fuel payment cuts, is that it has lacked a clear philosophical direction. Both Blairites and the soft left, for different reasons, have been disappointed by Labour's first year in office. Some believe this is exacerbated by the marginalisation of the Policy Unit, which one observer described as 'demoralised, lacking purpose and cut out of the loop left, right and centre'. Two advisers, Tom Webb (health) and Nick Williams (planning and infrastructure), left last month and a third, Ravinder Athwal, who oversaw Labour's manifesto and led on the economy, will depart in July. Some on the party's soft left – which has openly challenged Reeves' fiscal approach in recent weeks – hope that a new economic adviser could serve as a counterweight to the Treasury but others contend that 'there isn't an economist in the world who could come in and persuade Keir to go against Rachel'. As Starmer's government strives for direction, insiders believe that relations between Lloyd and Ingham will be a key litmus test. 'He's a great survivor,' said one Labour source, predicting that the original Starmerite would ultimately outlast his new Blairite boss. [See also: Andy Burnham has made his leadership bid] Related
