Ukraine-Russia struggle newest: Trump and Putin to talk this week as US pushes for ceasefire | EUROtoday

Russia launched an in a single day drone assault on Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, mayor of the Ukrainian capital mentioned early on Monday.

Klitschko, in a submit on the Telegram messaging app, mentioned that Ukrainian air defence models have been making an attempt to repel the assault.

Reuters’ witnesses heard blasts in components of town in what seemed like air defence techniques in operation.

Russia will search ensures that NATO international locations will exclude Ukraine from membership and Ukraine will stay impartial in any peace deal, a Russian deputy overseas minister mentioned in remarks printed on Monday.

“We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko informed the Russian media outlet Izvestia.

“Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO countries to accept it into the alliance.”

Lithuania on Sunday backed an EU proposal to pledge as much as 40 billion euros ($43.5 billion) in navy help for Ukraine this 12 months and mentioned an identical quantity would even be wanted in future years to discourage any future Russian assault.

“If we can sustain this amount … for a longer period of time, that would be the amount that would allow Ukrainians to keep their armed forces at current strength,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys informed Reuters on Sunday.

Budrys spoke on the eve of a gathering of EU overseas ministers in Brussels that may focus on the proposal, put ahead by the bloc’s diplomatic service, headed by former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.

The assembly comes at a time of uncertainty concerning the final result of U.S. negotiations with Russia, the way forward for U.S. help to Ukraine and Washington’s dedication to European safety.

EU diplomats urged doubling navy help to Ukraine to as a lot as 40 billion euros, in keeping with a doc seen by Reuters on Friday.

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President Trump, who mentioned he was keen to speak to the Russian chief by telephone, known as Mr Putin’s assertion “very promising” and mentioned he hoped Moscow would “do the right thing”.

But, he added: “Now we’re going to see whether or not Russia is there, and if they’re not, it’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world.”

He mentioned Steve Witkoff, his particular envoy, was engaged in severe talks with the Russians in Moscow on the US proposal, which Kyiv has already agreed to.

Mr Trump claims he has obtained “positive messages” concerning the ceasefire from Moscow and reiterated on Wednesday that he would “do things financially that would be very bad for Russia” if they didn’t settle for it.

He mentioned {that a} ceasefire would make sense for Moscow however mentioned there was “a lot of downside for Russia too”, with out elaborating.

“We have a very complex situation solved on one side, pretty much solved. We’ve also discussed land and other things that go with it,” he mentioned.

“We know the areas of land we’re talking about, whether it’s pull back or not pull back.”

He acknowledged that constructive alerts from the Russians meant “nothing” till a deal had been signed. Much of Europe and Ukraine consider Mr Putin’s constructive alerts will proceed to imply nothing even after a peace settlement is signed; historical past is full of examples of Russia, below Mr Putin’s management, breaking ceasefire agreements, they are saying.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who led the delegation in Saudi Arabia, mentioned after the talks that the US would take the provide to Russia, and the ball is in Moscow’s courtroom. “Our hope is that the Russians will answer ‘yes’ as quickly as possible, so we can get to the second phase of this, which is real negotiations,” he informed reporters.