The “Coalition of the Willing” will meet virtually today to debrief after last night’s talks at the White House, it emerged.
A spokesperson for the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said he would take part in the midday call (11am BST)
Later today, EU leaders are also set to take place in a virtual European Council, at 1pm Brussels time (midday BST).
Key events
We now have a further confirmation of the meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” this morning, coming from the German government and the Élysée Palace in France.
The meeting will be co-chaired by UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron, Élysée said.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has just responded to overnight Russian attacks on Ukraine, saying they show “how criticial it is to end the killing, achieve a lasting peace, and ensure robust security guarantees.”
“While hard work to advance peace was underway in Washington DC., led by Presidents @ZelenskyyUA and @POTUS, with the participation of European and Nato leaders, Moscow continued to do the opposite of peace: more strikes and destruction.”
He also confirmed earlier reports that “there has been damage to the energy infrastructure and injured civilians” (9:41).
Ending on a hopeful note, he said:
“The future meeting of leaders of Ukraine, the US, and Russia can bring a breakthrough on the path to peace. We are grateful to the United States and President Trump for the peacemaking.”
The “Coalition of the Willing” will meet virtually today to debrief after last night’s talks at the White House, it emerged.
A spokesperson for the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said he would take part in the midday call (11am BST)
Later today, EU leaders are also set to take place in a virtual European Council, at 1pm Brussels time (midday BST).
Russia attacked the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk with drones overnight, the city mayor said in comments reported by Reuters, calling it a sign that Russian president Vladimir Putin does not want peace.
“At the very same time when Putin was assuring Trump over the phone that he seeks peace, and when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was holding talks at the White House with European leaders about a just peace, Putin’s army launched yet another massive attack on Kremenchuk,” Vitalii Maletskyi, mayor of the city that lies in the Poltava region, said on the Telegram.
“Once again, the world has seen that Putin does not want peace – he wants to destroy Ukraine,” he said.
Reuters added that Maletskyi said scores of blasts shook the city, targeting energy and transport infrastructure, leaving hundreds of people in the Poltava region without power.
Poltava governor Volodymyr Kohut said that the attack damaged administrative buildings of a local energy infrastructure operation.
“Fortunately, there were no casualties,” Kohut said on Telegram. He said that in the Lubny district nearly 1,500 residential and 119 commercial customers were left without power.
Jakub Krupa
It’s Jakub Krupa here, taking over from Jane Clinton.
Good morning.
Alyx Gorman
On Monday evening the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, garnered compliments from Donald Trump and the White House press pool for his formal jacket and trousers.
But for the ensemble’s designer, Viktor Anisimov, the outcome of the meeting, not the verdict on the outfit, was of more concern.
“It’s not about the suit – it’s about what happens to Ukraine,” Anisimov told Womenswear Daily (WWD), speaking through an interpreter before the meeting.
Zelenskyy has largely eschewed formalwear since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, opting instead for military-style clothing as a gesture of solidarity with his country’s citizens.
In February, he was criticised by the pro-Trump TV reporter Brian Glenn for his decision to wear a long-sleeve polo shirt emblazoned with the Ukrainian trident, from the Ukrainian menswear brand Damirli.
“Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit. Do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office,” Glenn said at the time.
“I will wear [a suit] after the war is finished,” Zelenskyy replied.
Trump, too, noted the casual outfit in February, greeting Zelenskyy with a sarcastic: “You’re all dressed up.”
Read the full report here:
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that European leaders had failed to “outplay” Donald Trump, but that it was unclear how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would present the issues of territory and a security guarantee, Reuters reports.
“The anti-Russian warmongering Coalition of the Willing failed to outplay @POTUS on his turf,” Medvedev said in English on X. “Europe thanked & sucked up to him.”
Medvedev said the question was “what tune” Zelenskyy would play “about guarantees & territories back home, once he’s put on his green military uniform again.”
Trump told Zelenskyy on Monday that the United States would help guarantee Ukraine’s security in any deal to end the war in Ukraine, though the extent of any assistance was not immediately clear.
Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday that Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles overnight in one of its largest attacks this month, Reuters reports.
The air force said it downed 230 drones and six missiles. It recorded strikes at 16 locations with four missiles and 40 drones.
A Russian morning drone attack on Ukraine’s Chernihiv region damaged infrastructure and power cuts were reported in parts of the northern region, the governor said.
“Some settlements are experiencing problems with electricity supply,” Viacheslav Chaus said on Tuesday on Telegram, cited by Reuters.
“Energy workers and rescuers are already working on restoration.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy navigated Monday’s meeting more successfully than his Oval Office encounter in February, which ended abruptly when Donald Trump and JD Vance publicly upbraided him for not being grateful enough.
In his opening remarks to the media on Monday, the Ukrainian president repeated his thanks at least eight times, the Associated Press reports.
Zelenskyy also had reinforcements this time, with the leaders from around Europe travelling to Washington on short notice to demonstrate solidarity with Kyiv and push for strong security guarantees for the country in any post-war settlement.
Trump greeted Zelenskyy warmly on his arrival outside the White House, expressing admiration for his black suit – a departure from the Ukrainian leader’s typical military clothes, which media reports said irritated Trump in February.
When a reporter asked Trump what his message was to the people of Ukraine, he said: “We love them.”
Zelenskyy thanked him, and Trump put his hand on Zelenskyy back in a show of affection before the two men went inside to the Oval Office.
Donald Trump’s hosting of European leaders has been part of a flurry of diplomacy to find a path to peace in Ukraine. Coming just days after his summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the pressure was on to make headway in a years-long conflict that the US president once said he could solve in 24 hours.
In a fresh explainer we look at four key takeaways arising from the US president’s range of bilateral and multilateral talks with the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and Nato. The four are:
A meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin … could it finally happen?
The need for security guarantees agreed – but details unclear
Trump believes he is very good at solving conflicts
A potential boost for the US arms industry
You can read the context around each takeaway here:
An overnight Russian attack on the Kremenchuk and Lubny districts of central Ukraine’s Poltava region cut power to hundreds of customers and damaged administrative buildings of a local power infrastructure operation, the regional governor said on Tuesday.
“Fortunately, there were no casualties,” Volodymyr Kohut said on Telegram.
He also said that in the Lubny district nearly 1,500 residential and 119 commercial customers were left without power, Reuters reports.
Kremenchuk’s mayor, meanwhile, said the Russian attack showed Vladimir Putin did not want peace.
Vladimir Putin has agreed to face-to-face talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to Donald Trump and European leaders, and the Ukrainian president has welcomed the news, calling a “big step forward” towards securing a peace deal.
But French president Emmanuel Macron said he had “serious doubts” about Putin’s desire for peace and German chancellor Friedrich Merz also expressed doubt, saying he didn’t know whether the Russian president would have “the courage to attend such a summit”.
Here’s footage of the leaders setting out their reservations:
The leaders of five European countries as well as the European Commission and Nato joined Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the summit with Donald Trump at the White House.
A selection of images from the talks have been been curated here and include these:
If there was a sign that Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t going to be immediately voted off the island of the Donald Trump diplomacy show, it came early on when a familiar voice commended his choice of attire, writes Andrew Roth in his sketch of how the White House meeting unfolded.
“President Zelenskyy, you look fabulous in that suit,” said Brian Glenn, a pro-Trump pundit and member of the White House press corps, who had attacked him for wearing military fatigues during the infamous Oval Office meeting in February. “I said the same thing,” Trump added.
“You are in the same suit,” Zelenskyy shot back, earning smiles and laughter from the room including the US president. “I changed, you did not.”
Thus did Zelenskyy survive his first media appearance at the White House with Trump on Monday as the US president focused less on belittling the leader of a wartime ally than boasting – and in many cases exaggerating – his exploits as a peacemaker in world conflicts.
You can read all of Roth’s piece here:
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy both said they hoped Monday’s gathering would eventually lead to three-way talks with Vladimir Putin, whose forces have been slowly grinding forward in eastern Ukraine.
In a social media post late on Monday, Trump said he had called the Russian leader and begun arranging a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, to be followed by a trilateral summit among the three presidents.
Trump told European leaders that Putin suggested that sequence, Reuters cites a source in the European delegation as saying.
The Kremlin has not publicly announced its agreement, but a senior Trump administration official said the Putin-Zelenskyy meeting could take place in Hungary.
The pair will meet within the next two weeks, according to German chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The last direct talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Turkey in June. Putin declined Zelenskyy’s public invitation to meet him face-to-face there and instead sent a low-level delegation.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after his Washington meeting with Donald Trump and European leaders that security guarantees for Ukraine would likely be worked out within 10 days, adding that they would include the purchase for Ukraine of a package of US weapons.
“There indeed is a package with our proposals worth $90bn,” the Ukrainian president said. “And we have agreements with the US president that when our export opens, they will buy Ukrainian drones. This is important for us.”
As Warren Murray writes in our latest Ukraine war briefing, reports earlier suggested that Ukraine would promise to buy $100bn of US weapons financed by Europe – lucrative for US suppliers – as part of a deal to get guarantees from the US for its security if there is a peace settlement with Russia.
The Financial Times added that Ukraine and the US would also strike a $50bn deal to produce drones with Ukrainian companies. The drone news may partly repeat recent similar announcements.
You can read the full briefing here:
British prime minister Keir Starmer has described the talks at the White House as “good and constructive” and said they produced “real progress”.
Speaking after the summit, Starmer said: “There was a real sense of unity between the European leaders that were there and President Trump and President Zelenskyy.”
Starmer highlighted “two material outcomes” from the talks – first, that the coalition of the willing “will now work with the US” on security guarantees.
“That’s really important for security in Ukraine, for security in Europe, and for security in the UK,” the prime minister said.
Starmer continued:
The other material outcome was the agreement that there will now be a bilateral agreement between President Putin and President Zelenskyy, that was after a phone call between President Trump and President Putin during the course of this afternoon, followed by a trilateral that will add in Trump.
That is a recognition of the principle that on some of these issues, whether it’s territory or the exchange of prisoners, or the very serious issue of the return of children, that is something where Ukraine must be at the table.
These were the two outcomes that were the most important coming out of today. They’re positive outcomes, there was a real sense of unity. We’ve made real progress today.
Welcome to our live coverage of the latest diplomatic efforts to find an end to the war in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin has agreed to face-to-face talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to Donald Trump and European leaders, although the Kremlin has yet to confirm a meeting will take place.
After talks at the White House with the leaders of Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and Nato, the US president said he would coordinate security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a deal and claimed that arrangements were under way for a Zelenskyy-Putin meeting. He said a trilateral meeting would happen between the two, along with Trump, after that.
Finnish president Alexander Stubb said the main agreement from the White House meeting was that the killing had to end and that it remained to be seen if Putin had the courage to meet Zelenskyy. “Putin is rarely to be trusted,” Stubb said.
The Russian president has previously resisted a one-on-one meeting with Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s president said it was ready to meet with Russia in “any format” and that territorial issues are “something we will leave between me and Putin”.
Here are some of the latest developments:
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said Putin told Trump in a call during the White House meeting that he was ready to meet Zelenskyy “within the next two weeks”. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin and Trump only discussed the “idea” of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Monday’s phone call.
Trump told Zelenskyy the US would help guarantee Ukraine’s security in any deal to end the war, though the extent of any assistance was not immediately clear. “I believe this is a major step forward,” Zelenskyy said, also saying security guarantees for Ukraine would probably be worked out within 10 days.
The US president ruled out a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war during a meeting with Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House, despite last week warning Moscow of “very severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin didn’t agree to halt the fighting. Trump said while sitting with the leaders on Monday: “All of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace. Maybe something like that could happen. As of this moment, it’s not happening.”
Trump described his meeting with Zelenskyy and the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and Nato as “a very good, early step for a war that has been going on for almost four years”. He also said on social media that vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff were “coordinating with Russia and Ukraine”. “Everyone is very happy about the possibility of peace for Russia/Ukraine,” Trump said.
French president Emmanuel Macron called for stepping up sanctions against Russia if Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine. Merz said Ukraine should not be forced to surrender its Donbas region to Russia in talks, likening it to the US giving up Florida.
Trump, however, seemed clearly swayed by Putin from their talks in Alaska last Friday and echoed the Russian president’s talking points, saying several times on Monday that ending the war was “up to” both Zelenskyy and Putin – rather than just Putin, who invaded Ukraine. Trump also said: “We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact – that means the war zone.”
Ukraine will promise to buy $90bn of US weapons financed by Europe as part of a deal to get guarantees from the US for its security if there is a peace settlement with Russia, Zelenskyy said. “There indeed is a package with our proposals worth $90bn,” the Ukrainian president said. “And we have agreements with the US president that when our export opens, they will buy Ukrainian drones. This is important for us.”
In stark contrast to the heated exchange during Zelenskyy’s first trip to Trump’s White House in February, the Ukrainian president’s charm offensive this time around looked to pay off, allowing him to emerge unscathed. Zelenskyy – who wore a black military-style suit and presented a letter from his wife, Olena Zelenska, for Melania Trump in response to her letter to Putin – said this meeting with Trump was his “best” so far.
