Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin yet to show interest in peace, Trump envoy admits ahead of latest talks

Downing Street said Britain is making plans for the multinational force drawn from partners on the continent, despite the Kremlin’s rejection this week of any foreign deployment as “unacceptable”.

Thousands of allied troops could be sent to cities across Ukraine to help the army recover its strength and stand as an independent deterrent to Russian aggression – if both sides can agree to terms.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday, citing its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The plant was reconnected to a 330-kilovolt (kV) power line after an half-hour outage, but a 750 kV line is still disconnected, the IAEA said.

Widespread military activities overnight affected Ukraine’s electricity grid and prompted operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) to reduce output, the IAEA added.

A railway hub near Kyiv was attacked during a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack that damaged the depot and railway carriages, Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said on Saturday.

The railway did not report any casualties from the overnight attack in the town of Fastiv.

Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector and infrastructure in recent weeks, targeting power stations and railway hubs.

Power and heat generation facilities in Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions were targeted in the attack, Ukraine’s ministry for development of communities and territories said.

It said on Telegram that 9,500 customers remained without heat and 34,000 without water supply in the southern Odesa region.

Russia’s ambassador to the UK has said that Russia had “nothing to do with” the Salisbury poisoning attack, despite an official report concluding that President Vladimir Putin “must have” authorised the use of the deadly nerve agent.

Ambassador Andrei Kelin said he did not have a message for the family of Dawn Sturgess, who was killed after coming across the poison in 2018.

He said: “It’s a tragic death, it is of course sad and Russia has nothing to do with it”.

He claimed that instead the poisonings of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were staged by the British government and secret services.

He added: “It has been done by very talented professionals. It reminds me of Ian Fleming or even Agatha Christie”.

Retired Supreme Court judge Anthony Hughes, who carried out the review into Ms Sturgess’s death, found that the attempted assassination of Mr Skripal “must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin” and said that the GRU agents were “acting on instructions” when they carried out the attack.

The report concluded that the attempted assassination of Mr Skripal was not “designed simply as revenge against him, but amounted to a public statement…that Russia will act decisively in what it regards as its own interests”.

Putin signed an agreement to deepen the economic ties between the allies as Moscow looks to strengthen an embattled wartime economy, with the two leaders afterwards saying their ties were “resilient to external pressure”.

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Russia has launched a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday as US and Ukrainian officials meet for a third day of talks.

Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching attack, which triggered air raid alerts across the country, Ukraine’s air force said on Saturday morning.

Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralised 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.

At least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.

Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its air defences had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.

The head of the Ukrainian armed forces has said that it would be “unacceptable” for Ukraine to “simply give up territory” in a future peace deal with Russia.

Speaking to Sky News, General Oleksandr Syrskyi said: “Our main mission is to defend our land, our country, and our population…Naturally, for us it is unacceptable to simply give up territory. What does it even mean – to hand over our land? This is precisely why we are fighting; so we do not give up our territory.”

He said that a “just peace” for Ukraine would be one “without preconditions, without giving up territory”. He added: “It means stopping along the current line of contact”.

His comments come as Ukrainian officials and US advisers meet in Florida for a third day of talks over the security framework for post-war Ukraine.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff spent almost five hours with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday. After the meeting a Russian official said that “no compromise” had been reached on the crucial issue of control of Ukrainian territory.

Senior Ukrainian and US negotiators will meet for a third day of talks on Saturday after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for post-war Ukraine.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, called on Russia to show a “serious commitment to long-term peace”.

In a statement, after a second day of talks in Florida on Friday, they said that any “real progress towards any agreement” will ultimately depend on Russia’s readiness for peace.

“Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings,” the statement said.

“Parties also separately reviewed the future prosperity agenda which aims to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, joint US-Ukraine economic initiatives, and long-term recovery projects.”

The US and Ukrainian officials also discussed “deterrence capabilities” that Ukraine will need “to sustain a lasting peace”.

Friday’s session took place at the Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, a high-end private golf and lifestyle destination owned by Mr Witkoff’s property development company.

Previous diplomatic attempts to break the deadlock have come to nothing and the war has continued unabated. Officials largely have kept a lid on how the latest talks are going, though Mr Trump’s initial 28-point plan was leaked.

Russian drone and missile attacks hit energy infrastructure in eight Ukrainian regions overnight, causing blackouts, Ukraine’s energy ministry said

“Emergency repair work is already underway where safety conditions permit. Energy companies are doing everything possible to restore power to all customers as quickly as possible,” the ministry said.