\n<\/p>\n
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Downing Street on Monday for an in-person meeting with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz in a show of support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Starmer will use the meeting with the leaders from Ukraine, France and Germany to discuss the continuing talks between US and Ukrainian officials aimed at finding an agreement on guaranteeing Ukraine\u2019s postwar security.<\/p>\n
The four leaders took part in a virtual meeting of the \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d about two weeks ago, where they discussed plans to provide a European peacekeeping force that could be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.<\/p>\n
In a statement about the meeting released by the European Council, the trio expressed full support for \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s comments that the current line of contact must be the starting point for any talks\u201d.<\/p>\n
The draft peace deal, quietly brokered between US and Russian officials, has been criticised for leaving Ukraine in a weak and vulnerable position. The initial draft plan, which was reportedly developed by Donald Trump\u2019s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, would have forced draconian measures on Ukraine that would have given Russia unprecedented control over the country\u2019s military and political sovereignty, conditions that were seen as a surrender by Kyiv.<\/p>\n
The peace plan was significantly amended by Ukraine last month, removing some of Russia\u2019s maximalist demands. Though for now, the conflict continues. On Friday night, Russia launched a drone and missile attack on Ukraine\u2019s power and transport infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian military said Russia had launched 653 drones and 51 missiles on Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian forces downed 585 drones and 30 missiles, the military said.<\/p>\n
Zelensky has said Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure was the main target for hundreds of Russian drones and about 50 missiles, with Ukrainian officials accusing Moscow of seeking to \u201cweaponise\u201d the cold by denying civilians access to heat and power.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, US and Ukrainian officials will conduct a third day of talks in Florida as Trump\u2019s administration pushes Kyiv to accept an American-backed peace plan.<\/p>\n
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has already rejected some parts of the plan, with Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity and measures to deter future Russian attacks proving big sticking points for Moscow.<\/p>\n
Starmer has repeatedly stressed that Ukraine must determine its own future, and said the coalition of the willing\u2019s peacekeeping force would play a \u201cvital role\u201d in guaranteeing the country\u2019s security.<\/p>\n
In its new national security strategy, published overnight on Saturday, the White House said it was committed to Ukraine\u2019s survival as a \u201cviable state\u201d. But the strategy also prioritised improving relations with Moscow, stating that ending the war is a core US interest to \u201cre-establish strategic stability with Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u200bOn Saturday evening, Zelenskyy said he had held a \u201cvery substantive and constructive\u201d call with the US envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,\u201d Zelenskyy said on Telegram. \u201cWe agreed on the next steps and the format of the talks with America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy, who was in Kyiv, joined the call with the senior Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov, and Andriy Gnatov, the chief of staff of Kyiv\u2019s armed forces, both of whom were in Miami for the talks with the US side.<\/p>\n
The two Americans \u2013 Witkoff and Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law \u2013 had been in talks with Umerov and Gnatov since Thursday.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said the call with Witkoff and Kushner \u201cfocused on many aspects and quickly discussed key issues that could guarantee an end to the bloodshed and remove the threat of a third Russian invasion, as well as the threat of Russia failing to fulfil its promises, as has happened many times in the past\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said he was waiting a \u201cdetailed report\u201d from Umerov and Gnatov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Downing Street on Monday for an in-person meeting with Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz in a show of support for Ukraine. Starmer will use the meeting with the leaders from Ukraine, France and Germany to discuss the continuing talks between US and Ukrainian officials aimed at finding an agreement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[696,8551,2381,1284,529,2523,1347,1276,674,1770],"class_list":{"0":"post-36196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-deal","9":"tag-discuss","10":"tag-downing","11":"tag-draft","12":"tag-meet","13":"tag-peace","14":"tag-starmer","15":"tag-street","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-zelenskyy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}