Ukraine-Russia war live: Trump dials Putin to ‘immediately’ start peace talks

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said “only strong steps and pressure” can stop Russia’s terror in Ukraine after a deadly attack on Kyiv.

“Putin is not preparing for peace – he continues to kill Ukrainians and destroy cities,” Mr Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Right now we need the unity and support of all our partners in the fight for a just end to this war.”

At least one person has died and four others, including a 9-year-old girl, were injured in early morning missile strikes across Kyiv today.

Emergency services scrambled to douse fires and access damages to buildings in at least four districts of the Ukrainian capital.

Chinese officials in recent weeks have floated a proposal to hold a summit between Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump as part of peacekeeping efforts to end the Ukraine war, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday citing people familiar with the matter.

However, Beijing’s offer envisions a US-Russian summit without the involvement of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the people in Beijing and Washington, the report added.

Yesterday, Ukraine’s military capacity was immediately undermined in the medium term by Pete Hegseth telling his fellow Nato defence ministers that “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine”.

US president Donald Trump has said he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war following a sudden prisoner swap.

Here’s what he said after the call:

• Mr Trump said he spent more than an hour on the phone with Putin and “I think we’re on the way to getting peace”.
• “I think president Putin wants peace and president Zelensky wants peace and I want peace,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I just want to see people stop being killed,” he said.
• Of his conversation with Mr Putin, the US president said, “People didn’t really know what president Putin’s thoughts were. But I think I can say with great confidence, he wants to see it ended also, so that’s good – and we’re going to work toward getting it ended and as fast as possible.”
• Mr Trump noted that he would “probably” meet in person with Mr Putin in the near term, suggesting that could happen in Saudi Arabia.

President Donald Trump said he and Russian president Vladimir Putin had spoken and agreed to “immediately” open negotiations on how to end the war on Ukraine which Putin launched with an unprovoked invasion nearly three years ago.

In a statement posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he’d had “a lengthy and highly productive phone call” with the Russian leader, during which they discussed “Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects.”

Trump said both he and Putin — who ordered the invasion of Ukraine and claimed it was an effort to rid the former Soviet satellite of so-called “Nazis” in its western-aligned government — “want to stop the millions of deaths taking place” as a result of the war Putin started.

Kyiv has recently appeared to have accepted that it will not be admitted to Nato soon but has emphasised its need for military support under a peace deal.

“If Ukraine is not in Nato… we need an army as numerous as the Russians have today,” Mr Zelensky said in an interview with The Economist published yesterday.

“And for all this, we need weapons and money. And we will ask the US for this,” Mr Zelensky said, describing that as his “Plan B”.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said “only strong steps and pressure” can stop Russia’s terror in Ukraine after a deadly attack on Kyiv.

“Putin is not preparing for peace – he continues to kill Ukrainians and destroy cities,” Mr Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Right now we need the unity and support of all our partners in the fight for a just end to this war.”

At least one person has died and four others, including a 9-year-old girl, were injured in early morning missile strikes across Kyiv today.

Emergency services scrambled to douse fires and access damages to buildings in at least four districts of the Ukrainian capital.

US president Donald Trump has said he did not think it was practical for Ukraine to join Nato and that it was unlikely Ukraine will get back all of its land.

Mr Trump discussed the war in Ukraine yesterday in phone calls with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, in the US president’s first big step toward diplomacy in a conflict he has promised to end.

Mr Trump said he and the Russian president expect to meet in the future, probably in Saudi Arabia.