Alert – Ukraine latest: Kremlin issue peace demands and insist Putin is ready for talks with Zelensky as U.S. and Russia officials hold ‘successful’ meeting in Saudi Arabia

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has given a press conference in which he outlined some agreements reached earlier with the U.S following four-and-a-half hour talks in Saudi Arabia.

He said the countries had agreed to the following:

• Appoint ambassadors to each other countries to lift ‘obstacles to diplomatic missions’ which include ending restrictions on bank transfers to embassies.
• Appoint envoys to start negotiations on ending the conflict in Ukraine. Lavrov said the U.S. will confirm their appointment first before Russia decides its own
• Create conditions to resume co-operation in full

He said:

It was a very useful conversation. We listened to each other, and we heard each other.

Negotiations to end the Ukraine war will focus on territory and security guarantees, Mike Waltz added.

This needs to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary end, as we’ve seen in the past, there is going to be some discussion of territory and there’s going to be discussion of security guarantees.

U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz has singled out the UK and France for praise as he repeated calls for increased defence spending in Europe.

Mr Waltz said Europe needed to lead on security guarantees for Ukraine, adding it wasn’t ‘acceptable’ that a third of NATO allies do not contribute the minimum 2% of their GDP to defence.

He said:

This is a common effort. This isn’t just about what the United States is going to continue to contribute and what we are going to continue to ask of the American taxpayer. We all have to make those tough decisions.

We all have to contribute to our common defence, and we expect that this to be a two way street for our European allies, and the fact that both the United Kingdom, France, and others are talking about contributing more forcefully to Ukraine’s security, we think is a good thing.

A senior White House journalist has reported new elections in Ukraine could take place under peace proposals put forward by Russia and the U.S.

Jacqui Heinrich, a journalist for Fox News, reports:

The US and Russia are proposing a three-stage peace plan, according to multiple foreign diplomatic sources close to the talks in Saudi Arabia. The plan includes a ceasefire, elections in Ukraine, then signing of a final agreement.

Multiple foreign diplomatic sources tell FOX the US and Russia consider holding new elections in Ukraine to be a key condition for the success of the settlement process.

It comes as Russia has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of President Zelensky’s leadership while Ukrainians are likely to be concerned at Russia installing a pro-Putin candidate.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the European Union will come to the negotiating table ‘at some point’ to resolve the war in Ukraine.

Speaking after his meeting with Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov, he said there had to be ‘concessions by all sides.’

He said:

What’s important to understand is two things. The first is [that] the only leader in the world who can make this happen, who can even bring people together to begin to talk about it in a serious way, is President Trump.

The second thing I would say is that in order for a conflict to end, everyone involved in that conflict has to be okay with it has to be it has to be acceptable to them.

Rubio indicated there was role for EU further down the line, saying that ‘there are other parties that have sanctions, the European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point, because they have sanctions as well that have been imposed.’

The goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that’s fair, enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved. What that looks like? Well, that’s what this what the ongoing engagement is going to be all about.

U.S and Russian officials have concluded marathon talks in Saudi Arabia lasting four-and-a-half hours as the countries look to reset relations which fell ‘below zero’ under previous US President Joe Biden.

The delegations discussed ending the war in Ukraine, economic and investment opportunities and a meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Both sides have given their verdicts with the Russians hailing the talks as ‘successful’.

We will continue to bring you reaction throughout the afternoon but here’s what you need to know:

• American officials said the U.S and Russia have agreed to address ‘irritants’ to the U.S-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine
• The countries have agreed to appoint high-level teams to lead negotiations on Ukraine with a view on finding agreement ‘acceptable to all sides’
• They have also agreed to explore cooperation on matters of ‘mutual geopolitical interest’ and ‘historic economic and investment opportunities’ following the conclusion of the conflict
• Russia said it is too early to confirm a date for any meeting between Trump and Putin but that the countries had ‘started listening to each other’

US secretary of state Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff formed the U.S delegation while Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and adviser Yuri Ushakov represented Russia.

The U.S. State Department has said the U.S and Russia have agreed to address ‘irritants’ to the U.S.-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In a first statement after the talks had concluded, department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said:

One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace.

It emerged the two nations have agreed to appoint teams for talks on Ukraine to start talks on ending the conflict ‘as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides’.

The statement added the U.S. and Russia will also explore ‘future cooperation on matters of mutual geopolitical interest and historic economic and investment opportunities which will emerge from a successful end to the conflict in Ukraine’.

Another statement read:

President Trump wants to stop the killing; the United States wants peace and is using its strength in the world to bring countries together. President Trump is the only leader in the world who can get Ukraine and Russia to agree to that.

Russia and the United States will discuss the Ukraine conflict in ‘due course,’ a Kremlin negotiator told state TV on Tuesday, after high-level talks between the two countries in Saudi Arabia.

‘We discussed and outlined our principled positions, and agreed that separate teams of negotiators will be in touch on this topic in due course,’ Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide, said when asked if the sides discussed Ukraine.

Meanwhile Russia’s sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev (pictured) told Reuters the delegations from both countries have started listening to each other but it is too early to talk about compromises

‘I think it is too early to talk about compromises, we can say that the sides started communicating with each other, started listening to each other, started the dialog,’ Dmitriev said.

We are yet to hear from the U.S following the talks.

U.S. and Russian officials have today held more than four hours of talks in Riyadh, their first on ending the war in Ukraine, as Kyiv and its European allies watched anxiously from the sidelines and Moscow raised a major new demand.

Interfax news agency quoted Russian negotiator Yuri Ushakov as saying the talks went well, and conditions were discussed for a meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Ushakov said a summit was unlikely to take place next week. But the talks in the Saudi capital underscored the rapid pace of U.S. efforts to halt the conflict, less than a month after Trump took office and six days after he spoke by phone to Putin.

Even while the meeting was under way, Russia signalled a hardening of its demands.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow it was ‘not enough’ for NATO not to admit Ukraine as a member. She said the alliance must go further by disavowing a promise it made at a summit in Bucharest in 2008 that Kyiv would join at a future, unspecified, date.

‘Otherwise, this problem will continue to poison the atmosphere on the European continent,’ she said.

There was no immediate response from NATO members or the United States.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has consistently demanded NATO membership as the only way to guarantee Kyiv’s sovereignty and independence from its nuclear-armed neighbour.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser has said the four-and-a-half-hour talks between Russia and the United States in Saudi Arabia have concluded and were successful.

Yuri Ushakov said Tuesday that the two sides discussed the terms of a meeting between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, TASS reported.

A meeting between Putin and Trump is unlikely to take place next week, Ushakov said. He added that there was so far no concrete date for a meeting.

Talks between the U.S and Russia in Saudi Arabia have now concluded, according to a U.S official.

The discussions have lasted more than four hours.

We will bring you the latest news and reaction as and when we can.

Donald Trump ran for the White House last year promising to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict within 24 hours.

His aides now concede it will take months to the war he described as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘destroying’ Russia.

Moscow, however, has sounded increasingly confident in recent months as its troops have advanced at their fastest pace since 2022 and Trump’s overtures have ended its near-total isolation from the West.

Under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, the Kremlin had described relations as ‘below zero’.

U.S. officials cast Tuesday’s talks as an initial contact to determine whether Moscow is serious about ending the war, after Putin and Trump spoke last Wednesday.

The Kremlin had suggested the discussions would cover ‘the entire complex of Russian-American relations’.

Putin and Trump have said that, apart from the war, they are keen to discuss issues such as nuclear arms control and how to bring down global energy prices.

Defence Secretary John Healey said details of a US security guarantee for Ukraine are ‘being developed’.

Speaking at the Institute for Government on Tuesday, Mr Healey said decisions made over the coming weeks will not only define the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine, but the ‘security of our world for a generation to come.’

Mr Healey said:

We need a security guarantee for Ukraine … that is capable of delivering what President Trump has pledged and says he wants, which is a durable peace.That requires an end to the Russian attack and no repeat of that in the future, the European countries have to play a leading part in that guarantee but require a backstop from the US.

Keir Starmer will discuss that with President Trump when they meet shortly, but the one thing I’m not going to do is discuss details of the work that we’re doing, the discussions we’re having with allies and with the US, because the one thing I don’t want to do is make Putin any wiser.

Russia wants NATO to disavow its 2008 promise to one day award membership to Ukraine, it has emerged.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed while NATO membership for Ukraine is unacceptable for Russia, a simple refusal to accept Ukraine into the alliance is also not enough.

It is worth noting that a refusal to accept Kyiv into NATO is not enough. The alliance must disavow the Bucharest promises of 2008.

At a summit in Bucharest in April 2008, NATO declared that both Ukraine and Georgia would join the U.S.-led defence alliance – but gave them no plan for how to get there.

Europe will not act alone on peacekeeping in Ukraine without US involvement, a Cabinet minister admitted today.

Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, said it was ‘absolutely essential that any security guarantee is done in partnership with the US’.

Ahead of his trip to Washington DC next week, the Prime Minister is urging US President Donald Trump to provide a ‘backstop’ to any Ukraine peace settlement.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is prepared to send British troops to Ukraine as part of a peackeeping force, but he is facing pushback from some European capitals.

Read more here:

Keir Starmer’s future ‘peacekeeping’ force in Ukraine could be one misstep away from sparking World War Three, leaving British troops stuck in the middle of an apocalyptic ‘shooting war’.

That’s the view of former British spymaster Colonel Philip Ingram, who fears Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin would never stick to any peace deal.

It comes as academics and defence experts last night warned any ‘ill-thought out’ peacekeeping mission could prove ‘fatal’ for Nato, triggering furious political rows that would ultimately tear the alliance apart.

Veteran Col Ingram, who helped plan Britain’s peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, told : ‘The nightmare scenario is you get a peace agreement and there is a political rush to put troops on the ground and then something changes, and it turns into a shooting war and you’re caught in the middle.

‘That is distinctly possible with any peace agreement with Russia because they’re so unpredictable.’

• Read Tom Cotterill's exclusive report here

The U.S and Russian officials meeting in Saudi Arabia have now broken for lunch.

The delegations have been in talks for more than three hours this morning and will resume discussions after what is described as a working lunch.

More than half of Britons back sending UK troops to Ukraine, a poll found.

Nearly six in ten (58 per cent) told the YouGov survey that they either ‘strongly’ support or ‘somewhat’ back UK troops being deployed in the event of a ceasefire deal. Barely a fifth said they opposed such a move.

The poll found a variation between voters, however. While 67 per cent of Tory voters said they backed deploying UK troops, just 44 per cent of Reform UK supporters did. Labour supporters closely resembled Tory voters, with 66 per cent backing the move, while 70 per cent of Lib Dem voters did.

It suggests most voters back Sir Keir Starmer after being one of the first European leaders to publicly say that he was ‘ready and willing’ to put British boots on the ground to enforce any peace deal.

Read more here:

An explosion seen in the sky over Kyiv during a Russian drone strike

The Kremlin has today insisted Russian President Vladimir Putin was serious about negotiating a settlement to end the war in Ukraine.

Putin sent Russia’s army into Ukraine in 2022. He has repeatedly said he is ready to discuss an end to the war that reflects the reality on the ground, where advancing Russian forces now control nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Western intelligence, European leaders and former U.S. president Joe Biden have repeatedly asserted that they do not think Putin really wants peace, though U.S. President Donald Trump says he does think Putin is serious.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters:

President Putin has been repeating his words about his readiness for peace talks from the very beginning. The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. And, of course, we prefer peaceful means to achieve our goals.

Peskov said there was no understanding yet about a date for a meeting between Putin and Trump, though the Riyadh talks might bring clarity.

by Daniel Hannan

Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement that he plans to send British peacekeepers to Ukraine raises two immediate questions. First, do we have the military capacity and the means to pay for it? Second, what exactly would we aim to achieve?

The answer to the first question is depressing. We have been running down our Armed Forces for 35 years, mainly to fund an unprecedented expansion of the welfare state and the NHS.

When the Prime Minister asked his generals whether they could patch together a brigade to patrol those sparse steppelands, they doubtless told him that they would manage.

That is what soldiers do. Unusually among public-sector workers, they look for answers rather than excuses, and make do with whatever resources they have rather than insisting on bigger budgets.

Read more here:

Here is our current top story on the website

by Elena Salvoni

Russian and American officials have met in Saudi Arabia today for talks on improving relations and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine – with Kyiv absent from the discussions and insisting it will not accept a peace deal without a seat at the table.

The meeting in Riyadh marks a major step by the Trump administration to improve relations with Moscow and reverse US policy on isolating Russia, and is meant to pave the way for a meeting between President Trump and dictator Vladimir Putin.

Trump earlier this month upended US policy by saying he had held a phone call with Putin about beginning negotiations, sparking panic in Kyiv and among European allies.

Ukrainian officials are not taking part in today’s meeting, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that his country will not accept the outcome of any discussions if Kyiv does not have a say in its own future.

‘We cannot recognise any things or agreements about us without us. And we will not recognise such agreements,’ Zelensky said, adding that previously ‘it was like bad manners to talk to an aggressor during wartime.’

• Read the story in full here

Hours before senior Russian officials sat down with U.S. counterparts, a large scale drone attack was launched overnight in Ukraine.

In the Ukrainian city of Dolynska, people living in 38 apartments were evacuated after a high-rise building was struck injuring a mother and her two children.

Andriy Raikovych, the region’s governor, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app:

A difficult night for the Kirovohrad region. An enemy drone hit a high-rise building in Dolynska.

The mother and one of the children were taken to hospital, said Raikovych, who posted photos of flames bursting out of windows of a high-storey apartment building.

The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Russia launched 176 drones in a large-scale attack.

Ukraine’s air force shot down 103 of the drones and 67 did not reach their targets, probably due to electronic countermeasures, the military said.

It did not specify what happened to the remaining six drones, but said that Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Cherkasy regions were impacted.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has doubts about deploying European troops to Ukraine, an Italian government source has told AFP.

Joining fellow leaders in the French capital, Meloni told the meeting that sending soldiers was ‘the most complex and the least effective’ way of securing peace in Ukraine, according to media reports.

Meloni also emphasised the importance of involving the United States in any discussions on Ukraine and European security, saying the meeting should not be an ‘anti-Trump’ initiative.

French President Emmanuel Macron convened an emergency meeting with the leaders of Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, the EU and NATO on Monday to address Washington’s policy shift on Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week when he called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to talk about starting negotiations to end the conflict.

The Kremlin has said Russian leader Vladimir Putin is ready to talk to Volodymyr Zelensky ‘if necessary’ but repeated its questioning of his legitimacy as Ukrainian president.

‘Putin himself said that he would be ready to negotiate with Zelensky if necessary but the legal basis of agreements needs discussion considering the reality that Zelensky’s legitimacy can be questioned,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Zelensky’s five-year mandate would have ran out last year, but Ukrainian law does not require presidential elections be held under martial law.

Moscow has disregarded that and repeatedly said it does not see Zelensky as a ‘legitimate’ president.

Zelensky has said he would be prepared to ‘compromise’ and meet with Putin, but only after Ukraine and its allies agree a common position for how to end the conflict.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was Ukraine’s sovereign right to decide whether it wanted to join the European Union and that Moscow did not intend to dictate to Kyiv how it should approach the question.

Asked if Ukraine could one day join the European Union, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:

This is the sovereign right of any country. We are talking about integration and economic integration processes. And here, of course, no one can dictate anything to any country, and we are not going to do that.

Peskov added, though, that Russia’s position was different when it came to Ukraine joining military alliances.

‘There is a completely different position, of course, on security-related issues related to defence or military alliances,’ Peskov said

Volodymyr Zelensky has slammed the United States for trying to ‘please’ Vladimir Putin so they can get a ‘quick win’ in talks with Moscow on Ukraine – the outcome of which Kyiv has said it will not accept.

Reacting to conciliatory comments towards Russia by US officials, Zelensky said: ‘The US is now saying things that are very favourable to Putin… because they want to please him.’

‘They want to meet quickly and have a quick win. But what they want – ‘just a ceasefire’ – is not a win,’ he added, according to a translation provided by broadcaster ARD of an interview recorded Saturday in Munich.

‘We [Ukraine] will not sign just anything in order to be applauded… the fate of our state for generations to come [is at stake].’

• Read Elena Salvoni's full report here

Let's take a look at the current top story on after European leaders met in Paris yesterday

Keir Starmer’s rallying cry for Europe to ‘step up’ and deploy peacekeeping troops to Ukraine was last night rejected by Germany at a dramatic summit in Paris.

European leaders are in chaos over President Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine, amid fears he will withdraw his military support for the continent and abandon the Baltic states to Putin.

Starmer has called for the US to provide a ‘backstop’ for any deal in Ukraine, and European leaders appear to be panicking over the prospect of confronting Putin without American militry might.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz left the crisis summit in Paris between European leaders early last night and a ‘little irritated’ labelling the premier’s calls as ‘highly inappropriate’.

• Read Matt Strudwick's report here

Vladimir Putin’s chief foreign adviser Yuri Ushakov told state media the talks would discuss ‘how to start negotiations on Ukraine.’

Both Ukraine and Russia have ruled out territorial concessions and Putin last year demanded Kyiv withdraw its troops from even more territory.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Turkey today for discussions on the conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He is due in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after travelling to the United Arab Emirates on Monday (pictured).

He does not plan to hold talks with either the US or Russian delegations, his spokesman said.

Zelensky said last week he was prepared to meet Putin, but only after Kyiv and its allies had a common position on ending the war.

Here are some pictures of the meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the American delegation, while Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is representing the Kremlin.

Lavrov, right, sits next to Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov

L to R: US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz

The talks have taken place at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh

Diriyah Palace sits across the street from Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter.

It is also just next to the Ritz Carlton hotel, which became well known in 2017 after de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman detained other princes and the country’s elite there as part of what the royal court called a crackdown on corruption, which also sidelined any potential challenge to his taking control of the kingdom.

Hosting the talks is a major step towards a goal Prince Mohammed has pursued throughout the war – putting the kingdom in the middle of diplomatic negotiations.

Ahead of the summit, the Saudi daily newspaper Okaz described the moment as the “world’s eye on Riyadh”.

It has helped in prisoner negotiations and hosted Mr Zelensky for an Arab League summit in the kingdom in 2023.

Mr Zelensky said he would travel to Saudi Arabia tomorrow

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Mr Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov arrived in the Saudi capital on Monday.

Mr Ushakov said the talks would be ‘purely bilateral’ and would not include Ukrainian officials.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet the Russian delegation, state department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.

The talks mark a significant expansion of US-Russian contacts, nearly three years into a war that has seen ties fall to the lowest level in decades.

Ahead of the talks, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who the Kremlin said might join the meeting, underscored the importance of the meeting in comments to The Associated Press.

Good US-Russia relations are very important for the whole world. Only jointly can Russia and the US address lots of world problems, resolve for global conflicts and offer solutions.

The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al Arabiya, citing the Russian delegation, described Moscow’s priority as ‘real normalisation with Washington’.

Hello and welcome to ‘s live coverage as U.S. and Russian officials meet to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.

Senior American and Russian officials are holding talks in Saudi Arabia today.

The meeting at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh marks another pivotal step by the Trump administration to reverse US policy on isolating Russia and is meant to pave the way for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Trump earlier this month upended US policy towards Ukraine and Russia by saying he and Mr Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war.

Ukrainian officials are not taking part in the meeting, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that his country will not accept the outcome if Kyiv does not take part.

Stick with us for the latest updates throughout the day.